Fast start sends Crunch past Eskis

NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE

Release Date: Friday, Dec. 16, 2016

Fast start sends Crunch past Eskis

COCHRANE, Ont. – The Cochrane Crunch stormed out to a quick four-goal first period lead as they went on to defeat the Iroquois Falls Eskis 6-2 Friday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at the Tim Horton Event Centre.

Cochrane chased Iroquois Falls starter Trevor Hawkes by striking three times before the contest was 16 minutes old on tallies from Konnar Dechaine, Austin Whelan and Bailey Shaver.

The Eskis then replaced their netminder in favour of Artem Bortovskiy, but the Crunch greeted him with their fourth marker of the stanza 57 seconds later off the stick of Whelan.

Things settled down from there, but the home side upped the cushion in the waning moments of the middle session as Nate Viberg collected his 14th of the season at 19:52.

Dillan Bruce got the visitors on the board a minute and a half into the third as he picked up his 17th goal of 2016-17.

Viberg added another for Cochrane at 8:04 before Alex Mitsionis rounded out the scoring midway through the frame on an Iroquois Falls power play.

Kyle Herbster supplied a pair of assists in the win for the Crunch.

Leighton Williams made 38 saves to record the decision for Cochrane.

Hawkes suffered the loss for the Eskis allowing three on 17 attempts while Bortovskiy handled 35 of 38 in a lengthy relief stint.