DRYDEN, Ont. – The Thunder Bay North Stars scored five straight goals on Friday night and opened a two-game road trip with a win over the Dryden Ice Dogs.
Cody Bruchkowski, the league-leading goal scorer, sparked the comeback 3:24 into the second, after Dryden scored three straight to close out the opening period and take a 3-2 lead.
It was the first of two on the night for Bruchkowski, whose 36 goals this season are 13 more than teammate Jacob Brown’s 23, the second most in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
Brown and Ben Erwin scored 66 seconds apart in the first to give the North Stars an early 2-0 lead, but Dylan Winsor scored 16 seconds later to cut Thunder Bay’s advantage in half.
Then, 12 seconds after that, Stephen Minichiello tallied his first of the season to even the score at 5:47 of the first.
Malcolm Huemmert vaulted the Ice Dogs in front with 3:42 to go in the period.
The second was all Thunder Bay.
After Bruchkowski beat Jacob Anthony for his 35th of the season at 3:24, Erwin added his second of the night to give Thunder Bay a 4-3 advantage, a lead they’d never surrender.
Jett Leishman added one more before the second was complete and the Stars continued their goal-scoring ways in the third, Bruchkowski and recent acquisition Adam Morgan, with his first in a North Stars uniform, upping the lead to 7-3.
The Ice Dogs got two back in a hurry, Nolan Marshall and Huemmert going back-to-back, but Joel Willan pushed it out of reach for good with 62 seconds to go, scoring a power-play marker to make it 8-5. Then, for good measure, Michael Vecchio wrapped up the scoring at the 19:09 mark.
Thunder Bay (23-9-3) extended its lead atop the SIJHL standings to five points over Red Lake, and 13 over third-place Dryden (17-4-2).
The North Stars head to Fort Frances on Friday and return home on Wednesday to face Wisconsin.
