THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The red-hot Thief River Falls Norskies skated to their 17th consecutive Superior International Junior Hockey League victory Saturday as they rallied to beat the Thunder Bay North Stars 6-4 at the Fort William Gardens.
Thunder Bay got off to a quick start grabbing a 2-0 lead before the first period was seven minutes old on markers by Ryan Mignault and Carson Smith.
However, the No. 1 ranked club in the 132-team Canadian Junior Hockey League countered that with goals from Boe Bjorge and Alec Daman to knot the affair at 2-2 for the visitors after one.
The two squads then traded offensive efforts in the middle stanza to keep it level heading into the third as Jared Pedersen scored for the Norskies at even strength before Bradley Thrower connected on the power play later in the session.
Thief River Falls broke the tie with 3:54 left in regulation compliments of Blair Lindholm while Parker Simonson supplied the eventual game-winner 59 seconds later.
Lindholm added another for the Norskies at 19:12 before Thunder Bay’s Owen Belisle wrapped up the night’s scoring in the final seconds of the contest.
Michael Johnson had two assists for the winners while Troy Sherman added a couple helpers for the Stars.
Brock Lefebvre made 41 saves to register the decision in net for Thief River Falls while Dougie Newhouse saw 38 attempts in the loss for Thunder Bay.
Photo credit: Gary Moskalyk