Unbeaten Crunch rally to hand Canadians 1st loss


NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE

Release Date: Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015

Unbeaten Crunch rally to hand Canadians 1st loss

COCHRANE, Ont. – The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s leading goal scorer in Dustin Cordeiro was the hero late as his breakaway goal with 1:37 remaining lifted the Cochrane Crunch to a 4-3 come from behind victory over the Rayside-Balfour Canadians Thursday evening at the Tim Horton Event Centre.

Rayside-Balfour would open the scoring just past the 11-minute mark of the opening period as Logan Lefebvre notched his first of the season.

Cochrane countered that with the equalizer at 13:44 as Jeran Knorr buried his fourth of the campaign.

The visitors retook the lead four and a half minutes later when Ryan Mooney finished off a Kyle Patterson feed to make it 2-1 Rayside-Balfour.

Each club would then notch power play markers in the middle session with Cochrane’s Jeremy McNeil picking one up on a man advantage at 5:21 and Bradley Chenier doing likewise for Rayside-Balfour at 12:08.

The score stayed 3-2 Canadians until the midway point of the third when a costly turnover by Rayside-Balfour goaltender Kevin Labelle allowed Tyler Minoletti to fire in his first NOJHL goal into an open net while his team was shorthanded.

Then with overtime looming and the play in the Crunch zone, Cordeiro was sent it all alone on Labelle and buried his league-leading 11th tally of the season to give Cochrane the victory.

Seamus Maguire doled out a pair of assists for Cochrane in the triumph.

Brett Young stopped 37 of 40 shots fired his way to earn the triumph in net for the Crunch while Labelle was peppered with 48 attempts in defeat.

With the win Cochrane improves to 5-0 on the season while Rayside-Balfour suffered their first loss of the season as they fell to 4-1 on the campaign.