CHELMSFORD, Ont. – The goals came at a furious clip Saturday night at Chelmsford Arena where the Rayside-Balfour Canadians rallied from an early deficit before eventually outlasting the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 8-7 in a high-scoring Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair.
The Canadians trio of Ryan Erickson, Bradley Chenier and Otis Goldman played a big part in the victory as they recorded seven points apiece in the triumph.
It was all Gold Miners in the early going as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead on tallies by recently acquired Brett Ouderkirk as well as Marc-Antoine Arseneau and Arthur Miller.
Goldman got the home side going with a power play marker at 15:51 to make it 3-1 after one.
Rayside-Balfour got back into it in the second stanza getting a couple of goals from Chenier to knot the affair at 3-3 before Logan Fredericks put Kirkland Lake back in front midway through the contest.
The goals kept coming with Erickson knotting things up again with three minutes left in the session before Brayden Stortz gave the Gold Miners the lead once again with just six seconds remaining in the frame.
Chenier’s third marker of the evening 89 seconds into the third tied it once more, but Kirkland Lake countered that with a Brandon Wolfe man advantage effort at 5:41.
The see-saw affair then shifted in favour of the Canadians with Erickson striking twice in a minute and a half span to give his club their first lead of the night.
This time it was the Gold Miners turn to level the proceedings as Evan Bidenti made it 7-7 at 10:03 courtesy of the power play.
Rayside-Balfour went back in front for good with 5:36 remaining as Chenier capped off a four-goal, three-assist night as he notched the game-winner during an man advantage opportunity.
Erickson finished with a hat trick and four helpers while Goldman had a half dozen assists to go with his tally.
Ouderkirk had a team-high four points for Kirkland Lake.
Shots on goal favoured the Gold Miners by a 32-30 count with Jessie Morin picking up the win and Tyler Mazzocato suffering his first NOJHL defeat in the loss.
