PORT HARDY—The Port Hardy Warriors scored seven goals after intermission — including the final three of the game — and rolled to a 9-6 win over the Port Hardy Bulls in North Island Commercial Hockey League play at Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena Friday.
The Warriors finished with a split for the weekend, losing 5-4 to the Neucel Islanders Saturday in Port Alice.
At Port Hardy Friday, Jake Colbourne, Cole Morton and Shelby Cockell scored two goals each after the mid-game break. Morton netting the game-winner with 4:01 to play when he redirected Quinn Mellow's blast from the top of the circle past Bulls goalie Barry Wilson.
That gave the Warriors (4-4) a 7-6 lead, and Cockell added two scores in the final 3:11 to pad the margin.
In the early going there was little indication of the scoring eruption to come. Through the first 16 minutes the only score came on the Bulls' Scott Williams clean wrister past Warriors netminder Jason Saunders 8:54 into the game.
The Bulls (2-5) went up 2-0 on a goal by Richard Burgess as the teams skated 4-on-4 with 3:43 left in the first period. But the Warriors took advantage of a five-minute major penalty to score two power-play goals in the final three minutes of the period, courtesy of Jordan Nicholson and Mellow.
The Bulls' Andrew Laming snapped the 2-2 tie and restored his team's lead with his shot from the left circle just four seconds before halftime.
The Warriors jumped out with three straight goals after intermission, two from Colbourne and another from Nicholson, to take a 5-3 lead. But after the Bulls' Chad Mackenzie and Morton traded goals to make it 6-4, Williams and Shawn Patterson notched back-to-back tallies two minutes apart to tie the game 6-6 with 8:19 to play.
Mellow amassed four assists in the victory, with Brayden Demoe, Arlo Kueber, Colbourne and Morton adding one each.
Patterson had two assists for the Bulls, while Curtis Martyn, John Domalain, Steve Verbrugge and Mackenzie had one helper each.
The Bulls were originally scheduled to host the Port McNeill Ice Devils Friday while the Warriors traveled to Port Alice.
But Port Alice Arena was shut down for Remembrance Day, and the Devils could not field a team due to scheduling conflicts. The league-leading Ice Devils (5-0) are expected to resume league play this weekend.