RED LAKE, Ont. – Bryce Young registered his fifth hat trick of the season as part of a six-goal barrage in the second period to propel the Red Lake Miners to a convincing 7-3 victory over the Fort Frances Lakers in Superior International Junior Hockey League play Tuesday evening at Cochenour Arena.
Fort Frances came out fast and opened the scoring 27 seconds into the contest on Isaac Baron’s 10th tally of the season.
It stayed that way until early in the second stanza when the Miners struck twice before the session was four minutes old to go up 2-1.
Shaye Sommerfeld tied it at 1:26 with his 13th before Young notched his SIJHL-leading 47th a couple of shifts later.
Red Lake kept coming and added another at 6:21 thanks to Keegan Tiringer’s 13th, which extended a consecutive game point streak to seven for the Leoville, Sask., product.
The home side then chased Fort Frances starter Jacob Gnidziejko moments later as Young scored for a 48th time in 2018-19 with the Lakers opting to bring in Matt Booth in relief.
Going to the power play shortly after that Brett Hahkala countered for the visitors at 8:54 to bring them back to within two with half a game remaining.
However, the Miners kept it going in the stanza with Tiringer tacking on another three minutes later to restore the three-goal cushion.
Then it was more Young late in the frame as he hit his hat trick to make it 6-2 Red Lake entering the third.
Michael Di Lullo then reached the 25-goal plateau with a shorthanded effort early in the frame to add to the Miners’ lead before MacKenzie Flett rounded out the scoring for the Lakers.
Ethan Stuckless, Keilan Toews and Morgan Venne chipped in with two assists apiece to aid the Red Lake cause.
Zach Willms made 24 stops to record the win.
Gnidziejko suffered the loss allowing the four against on 23 attempts while Booth handled 13 of 16 in relief.
Photo credit: Patrick Boucha