SUDBURY – Alec MacKenzie tallied twice to help lead the Elliot Lake Wildcats to a 6-3 victory over the Sudbury Nickel Barons Wednesday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at McClelland Arena.
The visitors carried the play in the opening 20 minutes outshooting the home side 13-6 and were rewarded with the only goal of the session off the stick of MacKenzie at 16:32.
Elliot Lake extended their lead five and a half minutes into the middle stanza as Wildcats defenceman Nathan Campbell notched his 12th tally of the season.
Jimmy Roy got Sudbury on the board at 7:17 only to see Elliot Lake’s Spencer MacLean counter a couple of shifts later.
Once again the Nickel Barons pulled to within one courtesy of Brad Sutton, but the Wildcats answered that with Jason Wilson effort with just 10 seconds left in the second period.
A MacKenzie power play effort early in the final frame put Elliot Lake in control as they went up by three.
Roy added another via the man advantage with 3:37 remaining, but Adam Baxter iced it for the Wildcats scoring into an empty net in the final minute to round out the scoring.
A.J. Smith made 24 saves to record the victory for Elliot Lake.
Jessie Morin started for Sudbury facing 18 shots before giving way to Kevin Labelle following the third Wildcats goals. Labelle made 11 stops in relief and suffered the loss.
