Photos: Hélène Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Breaking open a tie game in the back-half of the third period, the Blind River Beavers went on to collect a 4-2 win over the Kirkland Gold Miners Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at the Blind River Community Centre.
The Beavers began the afternoon’s scoring 2:44 in when Ethan McLean came down the right wing and fired a shot that was stopped by Gold Miners’ goaltender Brian Rathwell, but Patrice Lafontaine was right there to chip the rebound over his pad and in for his first of the season.
Kirkland Lake countered with an equalizer less than a minute later as Mavrick Boucher cranked in the leftovers from the top of the crease on netminder Justin Sullivan off a Tayden Smith sharp angle blast.
Still tied into a spirited second stanza, that featured plenty of penalties, neither side contributed offensively to keep it 1-1 after 40 minutes.
In the third, the Beavers went back on top near the midway mark of the session thanks to Camden Cowan, who won a draw back to the point, then went to the net and redirected an Austin Schultz attempt from up top that changed direction just enough to elude Rathwell.
Adding another with 7:02 to go, some Blind River pressure forced a turnover that allowed Caleb Walker to spin and score from the right side.
The Gold Miners countered that with 1:41 remaining as they burst out of the own end off a face-off while shorthanded that led to Tysen Anderson going in alone on Sullivan and putting a shot through his legs.
Kirkland Lake then got their goalkeeper for an extra attacker in an effort to tie it, but McLean iced it for the Beavers in the waning moments with an empty net power play effort to cap off the day’s scoring.
