SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Oct. 28, 2016
Miners spoil Norskies home opener by recording 8th straight win
THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. – An early four-goal splurge sent the English River Miners to their franchise record eighth Superior International Junior Hockey League victory in succession Friday as they spoiled the Thief River Falls home debut with a 7-4 result in front of 1,785 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
The red-hot Miners set the tone early grabbing that four-goal cushion before the contest was 16 minutes old on a pair of Ryder Prue power play markers along with even strength singles from Austin Kuhn and Morgan Scriber.
Thief River Falls’ first home goal was credited to Keaton Huot as he collected the tally at 18:51 of the opening frame.
Huot then set-up Blair Lindholm to make it 4-2 just 41 seconds into the middle stanza as the Norskies pulled to within two.
English River countered with two more man advantage markers later in the frame off the sticks of Matt O’Neill and Dwayne Auger to make it 6-2 after two.
Battling back, Thief River Falls got another early effort in the third as Connor Smith collected his eighth of the season under a minute into the final frame.
Cody Aarvig’s first SIJHL goal brought the Norskies closer at 14:48, but Miners’ fifth power play effort of the night at 18:52 sealed it as Nash Dabb secured the decision for the Miners.
Spencer Eschyschyn faced 27 attempts in picking up the win for the visitors.
Ryan Buttazzoni started for Thief River Falls but was replaced by Sam Novak after the fourth English River marker on just 11 shots with Nowak suffering the loss in relief handling 24 of the 27 pucks fired his way in defeat.