COCHRANE, Ont. – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners got a pair of goals and two assists from Logan Fredericks to help them skate to a 5-2 victory over the Cochrane Crunch Friday in Game 1 of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division final at the Tim Horton Event Centre.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven set is slated for Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex in Kirkland Lake.
Cochrane did get off to a good start in Friday’s contest notching the opening tally of the series at 3:06 as Dustin Cordeiro collected his league-leading eighth goal of the playoffs.
Fredericks pulled the visitors even at 7:21 then helped set-up Brayden Stortz for his fifth of the postseason seven and a half minutes later.
Kirkland Lake went up 3-1 before the midway mark of the contest on a Marc-Antoine Arseneau effort before Alexander Hester connected on the power play at 15:16 to put them up by three entering the third.
In the final frame Fredericks picked up his second marker and fourth point early in the stanza as the Gold Miners extended their cushion.
The Crunch did get one back from Connor Lovie at 8:27 in what turned out to be the final tally of the night.
Joe Marcoullier turned in a solid effort between the pipes for Kirkland Lake finishing up with 43 stops, including 23 alone in the second period, to record the win.
Brett Young was saddled with the loss for Cochrane allowing the five against on 32 attempts while Allan Menary handled all 13 shots he faced in nearly 18 minutes of third period relief.
