ELLIOT LAKE – The Elliot Lake Wildcats used a three-goal first period to help lift them to a 6-2 decision over the visiting Abitibi Eskimos in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up Friday evening at Centennial Arena.
It was a good start for the visiting Eskimos as they opened the scoring 62 seconds into the contest Tristan Salesse notched his eighth of the season.
Elliot Lake battled back with a quick flourish in the latter stages of the frame striking three times in two minutes and 43 seconds to go up 3-1 on efforts supplied by Kevin Miller, Jason Wilson and Adam Baxter.
Abitibi removed starter Logan Ferrington in place of Chet Tooker to start the second and the move paid off as they pulled to within one in the initial stages of the second stanza as Patrick Picard connected at 1:09.
The Wildcats went back up by a pair midway through the session however as special teams saw Aaron Carmichael score during a man advantage opportunity.
While down a man Elliot Lake struck shorthanded 3:08 into the final period courtesy of defenceman Nathan Campbell, who scored for the 13th time in the 2014-15 campaign.
The home side added one more 10 minutes later as Josef Kittelberger found the mark at even strength for his first NOJHL goal.
A.J. Smith picked up the win for the Wildcats finishing the night with 20 stops.
Ferrington allowed three against in 14 attempts in defeat for Abitibi while Tooker gave up the final three while finishing with 19 saves in relief.
