Photos: Justin Cairns
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – Breaking open a scoreless game with five second period tallies, the Soo Eagles went on to down the Elliot Lake Vikings 10-2 Friday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Pullar Stadium.
Neither side would find the back of the net in the first period as it remained 0-0 after 20 minutes.
Sault Ste. Marie did open the scoring off a draw deep in the Elliot Lake zone in the second that saw Anden Marceau neatly redirect a Luke Russell left point attempt past netminder Ryder Lally at 2:18.
Clicking on a man advantage, the Eagles extended their lead when Drew Dellies snagged the puck off the end boards, off a Cole Wreggitt blast, and stuffed it in the open corner.
Not done there, the Soo added another when Cooper Fredericks supplied his team-leading 15th tally by taking a Lucas Caulfield saucer pass and taking left-to-right in close and tucking it by Lally.
A fourth in the frame saw Jack Fortson strike shorthanded as he took a Dellies feed and cranked in a one-timer on a two-on-one.
Capping off the offensive outburst, Wreggitt made a smart back-door pass across to Gabriel Fisher, who pumped it in at 19:45.
Putting it away in the third, the Eagles outscored the Eagles 5-2 to win going away.
Anthony Bertand got Elliot Lake on the board at 1:08 as he knocked in a close-range backhand on the Soo’s Jace Knoerle.
Fredericks, Marceau and Ilian Danilov then extended the home side’s cushion, before Bertrand bagged his second of the night with a shorthanded sizzler while dashing down the right wing.
The hosts then wrapped up the result in the late going off the sticks of Zach Sweitzer and Marceau, to complete a hat trick, in rounding out the scoring.
With the outcome, the Eagles improve to 13-6-0-2 on the year and in defeat the Vikings fall to 5-14-0-0.
