Photos: Hélène Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – A second-straight stellar effort in net by Blind River Beavers’ goaltender Justin Sullivan backstopped his side to a 3-1 triumph over the Soo Eagles in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Sunday afternoon outing at the Blind River Community Centre.
However, despite the victory, Blind River was officially eliminated from playoff contention by virtue of a 3-2 triumph by the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners over the Timmins Rock, that secured the eighth and final postseason berth for the Miners.
The Beavers had a quality opportunity to score first in the contest with a lengthy five-on-three, six minutes in, but they could not solve Eagles’ netminder Dalton Hoornstra.
They did capitalize however on another power play late in the initial frame when Ilian Danilov neatly steered a play ahead that allowed Caleb Walker to skate in and wire a shot over the glove of Hoornstra at 19:23.
Action in the second stanza saw it go scoreless as Blind River carried their slim one-goal lead into the intermission.
In the third period, the Beavers got a second marker with three and a half minutes to go as Austin Schultz snapped in a feed put across the point from Leighton Hurst.
They then collected some insurance with an empty netter courtesy of Julien Loiselle, which was his initial NOJHL tally.
The Eagles did eventually dash the bid for a second-straight shutout by Sullivan with just 19 seconds remaining as the Soo’s Coulson Bell came in over the blueline, and while using a defender as a screen, wired an attempt into the top right-hand corner to complete the scoring.
The Beavers improved to 17-30-0-4 with the triumph while the Eagles fell to 23-24-2-1 in defeat.
