SIJHL: Hamlin goal with less than a second to go earns Stars a home-ice win

Call Kris Hamlin the Mariano Rivera of the Superior International Junior Hockey League. He sure knows how to close a game. 

The last-place Thunder Bay North Stars forward scored the winning goal Friday night with just 0.6 seconds left in regulation, helping his side to a 5-4 win over the visiting English River Miners at Fort William Gardens.

It was Hamlin’s eighth of the season.

The Miners (5-7-4), riding a two-game winning streak entering the contest, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, Landen Matechuk and Konnar Dechaine scoring on Riley Corbin four minutes apart in the first 10 minutes of the contest.

The Stars roared back to tie the game early in the second, Avery Siau beating English River goalie Reid Kilburn just 49 seconds into the middle stanza on the power play. Brendan Gillis had gotten the North Stars on the board at the 11:48 mark of the opening period.

Dechaine restored a one-goal Miners lead early in the second, with Brad Arabia knotting it again a 5:04 of the third.

Dechaine completed his hat trick with 5:47 to go in the final period, only to have Aaron Wesley-Chisel score his first of the season 57 seconds later to make it a 4-4 contest.

The North Stars (6-8-1) host the top-ranked Fort Frances Lakers on Saturday night.