RED LAKE, Ont. – Bryce Young notched a natural hat trick before the contest was sixth and a half minutes old as the Red Lake Miners went on to build up a big lead before withstanding a huge late push by the Thunder Bay North Stars before eventually prevailing with a 6-4 decision Saturday evening in Superior International Junior Hockey League action at Cochenour Arena.
Young was all business early in this one as he wired home three shots early to chase Thunder Bay starter Brock Aiken in favour of Dougie Newhouse.
The trio of tallies for Young was his sixth hat trick of the season and his 20th multi-goal campaign of 2018-19.
With 56 goals overall, he now matches the second-most ever-scored in one year in the league, tying the 56 Chris Bryson notched for the then Schreiber Diesels back in 2006-07.
The SIJHL record for goals in a season is 69, set by the North Stars Kory McEwen in 2005-06.
After Young’s efforts, the Miners added another before the first frame was complete as Keegan Tiringer picked up his 20th to make it 4-0 after one.
Red Lake kept coming and tacked on two more in the middle session to go up by a half dozen with Kyle Uzelman and Shaye Sommerfeld both finding the back of the net.
League-leading Thunder Bay came out hard in the third period and out shot the Miners 28-4 and got their first goal of the night at 7:37 thanks to Ben Erwin.
Going to the power play, Kyle Auger picked up his 28th with nearly four minutes remaining.
They weren’t done there as rookie Jonathan Kilby spun in the slot and fired in his 10th at 17:43 with his club having an empty net and an extra attacker.
With Newhouse out once more, Auger added another to give him 29 overall 45 seconds later, but that’s as close as the North Stars would get in their comeback before time expired as the Miners held on for the win and snapped Thunder Bay’s 12-game winning streak.
Zach Willms faced 52 attempts in total to record the win for Red Lake.
Newhouse suffered the loss in lengthy relief for the North Stars allowing three against on 20 shots while Aiken handled five of eight before being replaced.
Photo credit: Patrick Boucha