The hottest team in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League continued their winning ways Jan. 9 as the Sudbury Nickel Barons reeled off their seventh consecutive victory, a narrow 2-1 win over the first place North Bay Trappers at McClelland Arena.

A tight-checking opening period saw neither side find the back of the net with Sudbury’s Michael Muzyka and North Bay’s Greg Dodds keeping the game scoreless, said the NOJHL in a press release.

The NOJHL’s top two point producers in Sebastien Leroux and Darcy Haines got things going for the Nickel Barons in the middle stanza with Haines’ notching his league-best 29th tally of the season at 3:45 while Leroux increased the cushion 11 minutes later with his second point of the night and NOJHL-leading 64th overall with the eventual game-winner.

The score stayed that way until late in regulation when the Trappers pulled Dodds in favour of an extra attacker in the final minute.

It is there that the visitors dashed Muzyka’s shutout bid with just 15 seconds remaining as Tait Seguin notched his team-leading 15th goal of the season while also extending a season-high point streak to seven games (six goals and five assists for 11 points).

Despite being denied the shutout, Muzyka turned in a solid performance finishing up with 37 saves on the night as Sudbury won No. 7 in succession, improving to 20-11 overall with the triumph.

Dodds had 20 stops in defeat as North Bay fell to 20-4-3-3 with the setback.