Puck drops on NOJHL title series
The two remaining teams in the quest for the 2015-2016 Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League championship are set to begin a best-of-seven series with Games 1 and 2 at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.
Soo Thunderbirds and Kirkland Lake Gold Miners will face off for league bragging rights.
Game 1 is tonight at 7:30. Game 2 is Saturday night, with a 7 p.m. start.
The reigning champion Thunderbirds, who finished in first place during the 2015-2016 regular season, have an 8-1 record through two rounds of this year’s playoffs, having disposed of the Soo Eagles in four games and the Elliot Lake Wildcats in five in back-to-back West Division series.
Kirkland Lake, which finished third in the East Division and fourth overall in the 12-team NOJHL during the regular season, has an 8-3 record thus far in the playoffs. The Gold Miners ousted the Powassan Voodoos in six games in the opening round of the playoffs before sidelining the Cochrane Crunch in five in the second round.
The Thunderbirds and Gold Miners met four times during the regular season with the Soo winning three of the four matches.
Regardless of which team wins the NOJHL title, both will advance to next month’s Dudley-Hewitt Cup, Central Canada Championships, to be held in Kirkland Lake.
This year’s DHC playdowns feature the two NOJHL reps plus the champions from the Ontario Jr. Hockey League and Superior International Jr. Hockey League.
Birds in 5 or 6.