The birthday boy had plenty to celebrate.
Nicholas Nigro, who turned 20 on Monday, scored a hat trick and added an assist to lead the Thunder Bay North Stars to a 5-2 triumph over the visiting English River Miners at Fort William Gardens.
Nigro, who has six goals in his past three outings, said he had a feeling in warm-ups it was going to be a special night.
But even he wasn’t expecting a four-point performance.
“The hat trick on my birthday, you couldn’t ask for anything better,” said Nigro, whose 17 goals are the third highest total in the Superior International Junior Hockey League behind Dryden’s Derek McPhail (20) and Fort France Lakers forward Dylan Robertson (19).
It’s all starting to come together for the veteran, coming off a 31-goal first full season with the North Stars.
“Like coach said, my feet were moving. It seemed when I was in their end I always had the puck and always had good opportunities to shoot the puck. I made everything work today,” Nigro said.
He could have had plenty more.
Late in the third he was stoned by English River goalie Reid Kilburn, in alone deep in enemy territory. It wasn’t the only goal that got away.
“It happens, but I’m happy I got the three, that’s for sure,” he said.
Personal stats aside, Nigro was equally ecstatic his team got the victory, a second straight after a lopsided drubbing in Dryden on Saturday to start the new year.
“Yeah, our first game in 2016 wasn’t the game we planned on, 8-1. But I’m happy with our team’s performance in the last two and hopefully we can keep it going on Wednesday against Fort.”
The North Stars (13-16-2) struck first, Brad Arabia pocketing an Avery Siau pass while Thunder Bay was shorthanded, the goal coming at the 6:36 mark of the opening period.
Ryker Moreau, featured on Sunday’s Rogers Hometown Hockey broadcast alongside North Stars captain Kenny Turner, responded four minutes later, the goal coming at the tail end of the Miners third consecutive power play.
It was almost all Thunder Bay from there.
Nigro netted his first of the night on the power play at 13:35. Then two minutes later, again with the man advantage, Bryce Martyn fired a low shot along the ice that went untouched past Kliburn for a 3-1 North Stars lead.
Hank Bouchard pulled English River (7-20-5) within a goal early in the second, Thunder Bay goalie Riley Corbin flat on his back and helpless to stop the uncontested shot from touching the twine.
Nigro restored the two goal lead with less than three minutes to go in the second, then completed the hat trick with a quick wrist shot at 15:49 of the third.
Thunder Bay fired 46 shots at Kliburn, who left momentarily in the second, replaced by back-up Korlan Vader for about a minute after the North Stars third goal.
Corbin made 25 stops to earn his 12th win of the campaign. Arabia had a goal and two assists while Turner collected three helpers.
The game was a make-up date for a postponed Nov. 20 contest.
