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ESPANOLA, Ont. – The suddenly surging Espanola Paper Kings won their fourth consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Sunday afternoon after downing the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-2 at the Regional Recreation Complex.
While it was Kirkland Lake, who carried the edge in shots on goal early, Espanola started the scoring in the latter stages of the first period.
On the tally, Kaden Wicklander fired a cross-ice feed over to defenceman Aiden Pethick, who blasted a shot from the top of the left circle that took a ricochet of a defender and eluded netminder Caleb Shuker at 17:17.
Answering with an equalizer a couple of minutes into the second stanza, the Gold Miners’ Nicolas Saucier snagged a loose puck behind the net, then wheeled in front where he stuffed a backhand under Paper Kings’ starter James Meredith.
Coming back to retake the lead midway through the match-up, Graydon Guthrie picked off a play at his own blueline, then raced down the ice on a two-on-one, then sent a pass over to Jack Anderson, who pumped his chance into the bottom right corner.
Building on that, Espanola generated a number of quality chances before Aidan Rufa whipped in a wrister to give him goals in three straight outings, since returning to the line-up just over a week ago.
Collecting another, off a fortuitous bounce, the home side took a 4-1 lead.
On the play, a Kirkland Lake player attempted to fire the puck around the end boards, but it hit the Paper Kings’ Jason Galante, then bounced over the net, off the back of Shuker, and in.
Espanola then notched a buzzer beater as Ashton Pitawanakwat as knocked in his 10th tally of the season a fraction before the horn sounded to finalize the frame.
In the third, the Miners got one back when an Inde Abresch back pass sent Josh Hall darting down the left wing where he wired one by Meredith at 9:45.
That proved to be the final marker in the matinee as the Paper Kings skated away with the triumph and continued their winning ways.
Both teams return to NOJHL action Friday as Espanola travels to Timmins while Kirkland Lake pays a visit to Hearst.
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