THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. – The red-hot Thief River Falls Norskies rolled to their eighth consecutive Superior International Junior Hockey League victory Saturday as they bounced the English River Miners 7-1 in front of 842 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Thief River Falls came out flying in this one grabbing a 5-0 lead after one period of play.
Three quick tallies sent the Norskies on their way as Michael Johnson, Connor Schuster and Alec Daman all found the back of the net to chase English River starter Josh Breznik in favour of Michael Lenko the rest of the way.
However the home side greeted Lenko with markers from Jared Pedersen at even strength and Bryan Miller’s first SIJHL goal during a late power play to take a big lead into the middle stanza.
In the second period Jared Janke Got one back for the Miners midway through the session, but Cody Aarvig made it 6-1 at 19:26.
Parker Simonson then finished off the one-side decision with his 11th of the season six minutes into the third to round out the scoring.
Brock Lefebvre won again for the Norskies making 26 stops along the way.
Breznik suffered the loss and allowing three on five shots while Lenko saved 35 of 39 in lengthy relief.