SUDBURY – A three-goal outburst before the contest was 12 minutes old sent the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners on their way as they skated to a 7-2 victory over the Sudbury Nickel Barons Wednesday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at McClelland Arena.
Zach Pease opened the scoring 4:47 into the first period to get the Gold Miners going.
Special teams allowed the visitors to go up by a pair as Jeremy Dumont connected on the power play at 11:34.
Kirkland Lake added another 23 seconds later off the stick of Joel Fortin.
The Nickel Barons got on the board just over two minutes later thanks to a man advantage marker from defenceman Ryan Mooney.
In the middle session, Gold Miners captain Ethan Strong then hammered home his 12th power play tally of the campaign at 11:53 to put his side up by three.
Another extra man effort allowed Sudbury to pull closer with 18 seconds left in the second courtesy of Christopher Rossi’s 14th of the season while picking up a point in nine of his past 10 outings.
Kirkland Lake put the game away in the final frame starting with Dumont’s second of the night and 22nd overall 4:14 into the stanza.
Jamey Lauzon and Pease then added later goals to cap off the victory.
Ryan Aubertin doled out three assists to aid the offensive cause for the winning side while Turk Scatliff and Dylan Rosen added two helpers apiece.
Josh Erickson made 45 saves to record the win with Jessie Morin facing 34 shots in defeat for the Nickel Barons.
