SUDBURY – The Sudbury Nickel Barons jumped out to a three-goal lead and never trailed as they defeated the Cochrane Crunch 3-1 Wednesday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at McClelland Arena.
Sudbury got on the board quickly in this one as Yanic Hebert buried his first tally of the season two and a half minutes into the contest.
Special teams allowed the Nickel Barons to extend their cushion midway through the opening stanza as Ryan Theriault connected on the power play as he hit the 15-goal mark on the campaign.
The first minute of the middle stanza saw the home side go up by three as Sudbury rookie forward Jackson Gunner struck 53 seconds into the session spelling an early-end to Cochrane starter Ben Auger’s night.
It stayed that way until 12:56 of the third when the Crunch dashed Kevin Labelle’s shutout bid courtesy of Joey Mavrin’s ninth of the season in what turned out to be the final tally of the evening.
Nickel Barons captain Jacob Bonin dished out two assists to aid the winners offensive cause.
Labelle finished the night making 37 saves to record the victory.
Auger suffered the loss for the Crunch allowing three against on 15 attempts with Brett Young turning aside all 23 shots he faced in 39 minutes of relief.
