SPOONER, Wis. – Cody Bruchkowski tallied twice, including his 50th and 51st goals of the season, to help lift the Thunder Bay North Stars to a 7-3 decision over the Wisconsin Lumberjacks in Superior International Junior Hockey League play Saturday at the Spooner Civic Center.
This marks the second-straight campaign a SIJHL player has notched 50-plus tallies in a campaign as Bryce Young potted 60 for the Red Lake Miners in 2018-19.
Wisconsin did start strong as they skated out to a 2-0 lead after one period of play on tallies from Austin Cardinal and Ryan Green.
The second stanza was all Thunder Bay though as the scored four times in a 10-minute span to take the lead in the match-up.
Joel Willan knocked one in on a power play before Bruchkowski bagged No. 50 at 10:58 with a pin point wrist shot from the left side that beat Lumberjacks starter Hunter Adams.
The North Stars then tacked on two more, 44 seconds apart, to go up by a pair with Alex Erwin and Jacob Anttonen both finding the back of the net.
Wisconsin moved back to within one midway through the third as Dalton Garcia redirected a Cameron Birkeland right point shot off a face off win by Joel Matthews.
In the late going though, the hosts opted to pull Adams a couple of times for an extra attacker, but Bruchkowski and Michael Vecchion both scored into an empty net to cap off the road victory.
North Stars netminder Dylan Kosik finished with 40 saves to record the win while Adams faced 29 attempts in defeat.
The same two will meet again Sunday at 6 p.m. back in Spooner.
Photo credit: Karina Schafer