RED LAKE, Ont. – The Thief River Falls Norskies picked up three points apiece from forward Justin Schwartzmiller and defenceman Connor Kalthoff to help them double up the Red Lake Miners 6-3 in Superior International Junior Hockey League action Sunday night at Cochenour Arena.
Thief River Falls started strong as they notched the evening’s opening tally just past the three-minute mark of the first period on Nick Harder’s 19th goal of the season.
The Norskies then added another one late in the frame with Schwartzmiller finishing off a Harder feed at 17:46.
Down a skater in the middle stanza, the visitors struck shorthanded to extend their cushion thanks to Cory Checco at 5:37, which also resulted in Red Lake replacing starter Samuel Gendron in favour of backup Cody Levesque, who went the rest of the way for the Miners.
Red Lake cut into the deficit early in the third Jace Pitawanakwat collected his first SIJHL goal at 1:23.
However, Thief River Falls countered with a trio of tallies less than three and a half minutes apart to put the game away as Schwartzmiller and Harder added their second of the night while Jonah Henderson also got into the goal count.
The Miners did get two back before time expired off the stick of Jordan Baranesky and Ethan Stuckless, with a man advantage effort, to round out the night’s scoring.
Bryce Krauter assisted on all three Red Lake markers.
Norskies’ netminder Joshua Seeley faced 37 shots to pick up the win for the visitors.
Levesque suffered the loss in relief, giving up three on 13 chances while Gendron also allowed three against while facing 12 attempts in nearly 26 minutes of work.
The same two teams meet again Monday afternoon in a 2:30 p.m. start back at Cochenour Arena.
Photo credit: Patrick Boucha