Four games in four days took its toll on the Thunder Bay North Stars last week, losing the final three on the road to the English River Miners. This weekend the Miners traveled to Fort William Gardens to play a pair of games and Thunder Bay earned an important four points in the Superior International Junior Hockey League standings winning Friday 6-4 followed by a 1-0 overtime victory Saturday night.
Thunder Bay began the two-game set by scoring twice in each period to hold off the Miners on Friday night. Riley Corbin stopped 42 of 46 shots faced while Brad Thrower scored a natural hat trick to lead the North Stars offense. Avery Siau (1 goal, 2 assists), Kris Hamlin (1 goal, 1 assist) and Nicholas Nigro (1 goal) also tallied goals for Thunder Bay. Nash Dabb scored twice for English River while Reid Kilburn (31 saves) took the loss in net.
Saturday night the teams returned to the Gardens for a 60 minute showdown between goaltenders Corbin and Kilburn. Neither team scored in regulation, but it took just :30 of overtime before Thrower found a game-winner for the North Stars. Corbin made 33 saves to pick up the shutout victory while Kilburn stopped 36 of 37 in a losing effort.
Thunder Bay (3-6-0-1) resume play on Friday, October 16 when they host the Minnesota Iron Rangers. Game time at Fort William Gardens is scheduled for 7:30 PM (ET).