SPOONER, Wis. – Continuing his incredible season, Cody Bruchkowski collected a pair of goals, including the game-winner in overtime, and added an assist to lift the Thunder Bay North Stars to a 5-4 victory over the Wisconsin Lumberjacks in Superior International Junior Hockey League action Sunday evening at the Spooner Civic Center.
Thunder Bay came out strong and snagged a 2-0 lead before the match-up was 10 minutes in on tallies from Nikolas Campbell and Bruchkowski.
Answering back, Wisconsin tacked on two of their own in the back half of the frame courtesy of Jack Jones and Austin Cardinal.
Midway through the second stanza, Campbell went upstairs on Lumberjacks’ starter Hunter Adams for his 21st of the season, only to see Ryan Green click on the power play a few shifts later for the hosts to tie it at 3-3.
The North Stars regained the lead though with Jacob Brown tucking in his 30th to give the visitors the edge once more as they hit the intermission.
Then with time winding down, and Adams out for an extra attacker, Wisconsin drew level with 62 seconds left as Dalton Garcia jammed in the equalizer off a goal-mouth scramble following a Jack Jones blast from the point to force extra time.
Going to the man advantage in OT, Brown worked it over to Bruchkowski who skated into the left of the slot where he wired in his league-leading 53rd goal of the season on a night where he extended an impression consecutive game point streak to 18 in succession while also scoring in the 11th time (17 goals in total) in his past dozen outings.
Wisconsin did hold the edge in shots by a 36-33 count with Dylan Kosik getting the win while Adams helped his side earn a point in defeat.
Photo credit: Karina Schafer