KIRKLAND LAKE – For a second straight night the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners used a stingy defence backed by shutout netminding to blank the Cochrane Crunch 5-0 Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
After edging the Crunch 1-0 in Cochrane Friday, the Gold Miners built on that by grabbing a two-goal lead after one period in Kirkland Lake getting tallies from Joel Fortin at 6:42 followed by a power play effort courtesy of Jeremy Dumont at 9:03.
Ryan Aubertin added to the cushion for the home side as he notched his 25th of the season with a couple minutes left in the middle stanza.
After Zach Pease made it 4-0 4:42 into the third, Dumont capped off the scoring with his second of the evening a few shifts later to cap off a three-point night that also featured an assist.
Pease had a couple helpers of his own to go along with his goal.
Devon Debastos stopped all 22 shots he faced to record the shutout, which was his third of the season and moved him into a tie for the league lead in that department.
The Gold Miners have now gone a spell of 170 minutes and 36 seconds without allowing a goal against.
Brett Young faced 39 attempts in defeat for the Crunch.
