THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The red-hot Thief River Falls Norskies picked up two goals from Parker Simonson to help them win their 10th Superior International Junior Hockey League game in a row and improve to 28-1 overall as they topped the Thunder Bay North Stars 6-3 Saturday at the Fort William Gardens.
An early power play helped the Norskies open the scoring 76 seconds into the contest as Mitchell Soderberg saucered a perfect cross-ice pass over to a pinching defenceman Connor Bowey who neatly connected via the back door by knocking the puck into the open side past North Stars’ starter Dougie Newhouse.
Up a man themselves later in the period, Thunder Bay tied it on Bradley Thrower’s 15th of the season at 7:48.
Thief River Falls regained the lead before the frame was complete however compliments of Simonson.
An Alex Maticic man advantage marker 6:53 into the middle stanza helped the North Stars draw level again only to see Simonson strike once more at 14:35 as he notched his league-leading 27th tally of the season.
The Norskies kept coming and added two more before the period was complete thanks to an even strength effort from Blair Lindholm and a shorthanded goal from Alec Daman.
Thrower added his second of the evening during a late third period power play to make it 5-3 before Cody Aarvig iced it for Thief River Falls with an empty netter in the waning moments to finish things off.
Boe Bjorge dished out two assists to aid the visitors’ offensive cause.
The Norskies outshot the North Stars 32-26 with Bailey Schmitz picking up the win while Newhouse suffered the loss.
Photo credit: Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com