GALLERY: Early outburst helps send Red Wings past Crunch

Photos: Northern Exposures Photography

ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – The Elliot Lake Red Wings got a pair of tallies from Cameron Dial and Zachary Vickerman to propel them to a 5-1 triumph over the Cochrane Crunch in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Sunday at Centennial Arena.

It was all Elliot Lake from the onset as the Red Wings skated out to a two-goal lead before the match-up was a minute and a half old.

Defenceman Dial connected for the home side 40 seconds in as he glided in from the point and quickly finished off a Ryan Daponte feed from behind the net.

Coming right back, Vickerman added another for the hosts on the next shift after Matt Hill snagged a rising puck and sent it across to him of the left side where he whipped one by Cochrane netminder Jake Dubinsky.

Going up by the three midway through the first frame, Dial notched another as he once again had time to move in after receiving a Sam Noad set-up from the corner, then ripping a shot blocker side on Dubinsky from the right circle.

Adding to their lead five minutes into the middle stanza, Noah Aboflan cruised into the slot and fired a shot that banked off teammate Adam Matar and into the net.

Moving to the final frame, the Crunch dashed the Red Wing’s Cameron Smith’s bid for his third shutout of the season with just over eight minutes to play as Alex Dionne snagged a loose puck in the Elliot Lake zone and moved to the slot, before snapping in his attempt.

Capping off the home ice victory in the late going, Vickerman was sent in alone on a breakaway where he made a couple of crafty head fakes before lifting the puck over Dubinsky’s glove at 18:45 to round out the day’s scoring.

The triumph sees Elliot Lake improve to 14-31-1-2 on the season while Cochrane dropped their 20th straight game, in falling to 6-39-1-1 overall.