The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League leading point producer in Sebastien Leroux scored three times and assisted on another to lead the Sudbury Nickel Barons to their third win in a row Dec. 14, a 5-1 decision over the Elliot Lake Bobcats.
Neither team would find the back of the net in the opening frame in a scoreless first period.
In the second, Leroux struck 35 seconds into the stanza and added another sandwiched around a Justin Bell effort to put the Nickel Barons up 3-0 after 40 minutes.
Elliot Lake dashed Michael Muzyka’s shutout bid early in the final period as Dustin Cordeiro converted on a penalty shot at 2:58.
Leroux capped off his hat trick minutes later and set up Martin Jolicoeur for some insurance with a power-play goal at 5:37 to round out the scoring. Leroux ran his league-high point total to 53, including 17 tallies.
Muzyka finished up with 26 saves to register the win for Sudbury’s third straight triumph, raising their record to 16-11.
Cory Simic was pelted with 52 shots in a losing cause for the Bobcats who slipped to 7-18-0-1.
Sudbury Nickel Barons 5 Blind River Beavers 2
The Barons continued their winning ways Dec. 15, winning a fourth straight outing, this time against the Blind River Beavers with a final score of 5-2.
Leroux again dominated the play with a second hat trick in two night as well as an assist. He received assists from Darcy Haines in the triumph.
After Martin Jolicoeur and Justin Bell staked the Nickel Barons to a 2-0 lead courtesy of a pair of power-play markers by the midway point of the opening stanza, Samuel Wilbur extended a consecutive game point streak to six after bagging his 13th goal of the season and getting the Beavers on the board.
Blind River’s Tyson MacLeod would level the proceedings 9:09 into the middle stanza only to see Leroux tally twice in a 112-second span to put Sudbury up 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Leroux then capped off his second consecutive three-goal, one-assist game in the third notching a man advantage marker at 4:37.
Alex Laino turned aside 52 shots to record the win while Aaron Cormier faced 38 shots in a losing cause as Blind River dropped to 5-17-2-4.
