Darcy Haines scored once and dished out three assists to help pace the Sudbury Nickel Barons back into the win column Oct. 24 with a 7-2 triumph over the Abitibi Eskimos in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at McClelland Arena.

The two sides skated through a scoreless opening period before an eight-goal explosion in the middle frame, including six by the Nickel Barons, blew the game wide open, according to a news release.

Storming out of the dressing room to start the second stanza Sudbury struck for four tallies by the five-minute mark of the session with Michael Rouleau, Sebastien Leroux, Marco Lizotte and Giovanni Foschia all beating Abitibi starter Marc Audet.

After Richard Therrien’s 12th goal of the season put the Eskimos on the board at 6:29, Haines and Brett Dusick connected to make it 6-1 for the home side.

An Eric Martineau power-play effort in the final minute of the period cut into the deficit after 40 minutes.

Joshua Moore added the game’s final goal midway through the third to round out the scoring.

Alex Laino turned aside 32 of 34 attempts he faced to record the victory for Sudbury who snapped a four-game winless drought and improved to 9-5 on the campaign, moving into third place in the NOJHL standings.