IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – A second period hat trick by Caleb Dolman helped the Cochrane Crunch skate to a 7-5 triumph over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners Saturday in Day 2 action of the Polar Bear Classic at Jus Jordan Arena in Iroquois Falls.
There was plenty of offense in this one as each side started with a pair of tallies apiece in the opening 20 minutes with Noah Bennett and Alex Engel striking for Cochrane while Joe Whittet and Declan Carter scored for Kirkland Lake.
The back and forth affair saw six more markers notched in the middle stanza.
After Dolman put the Crunch in front at 7:04 of the session, Gabe Rheault drew the Gold Miners level 66 seconds later.
Coming right back, Cochrane regained the lead thanks to Dolman again just over a minute after that.
He then finished off his three-tally performance at 13:24, but saw Kirkland Lake counter with goals from Tyler Fyfe and Carter to knot the contest at 5-5 after two.
Special teams allowed the Crunch to get the game-winner eight and half minutes into the final frame with Ricky Regela scoring on the power play.
Cochrane then iced it with a late empty netter from Josh Roberts to round out the scoring.
Kyle Henderson played the first period for the Crunch and stopped eight of 10 shots.
Taylor Unruh went the rest of the way from there and picked up the win as he handled 15 of 18 attempts fired his way.
Ty Sparling and Jess Hodgson split duties in net for the Gold Miners seeing 39 shots in total in defeat.
Up next sees 2-0 Cochrane meeting 2-0 Kingston (OJHL) tonight in a first place showdown at Tim Horton Event Centre while Kirkland Lake (0-2) takes on Espanola (0-2) back at Jus Jordan Arena. Both match-ups get underway at 8 p.m.
