Photos: Hélène Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – The Blind River Beavers got two goals from Alex Ivanov, including the game-winner, while Malcom McCrae scored once and aided on two others as they went on to drop the Soo Thunderbirds 6-1 in a Tuesday evening Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at the Blind River Community Centre.
It was the hometown Beavers who opened the scoring, seven and a half minutes into the contest, as they were quick to move up ice on a counterattack.
On the play, Wyatt Jarratt chased down his own attempt to the target and eventually stuffed in a wrap around after cutting out from behind the net and beating Thunderbirds’ starter Cameron Boville.
Adding to their lead early in the middle stanza, Braden Yudt pumped a shot off the pad of Boville and saw the rebound go right to Ivanov in the right circle where he wired in his sixth of the season.
An impressive rush by Alex Proulx made it 3-0 Blind River as he powered his way ahead and after muscling past multiple defenders, he split the Sault Ste. Marie defence before wiring a low shot into the bottom right corner midway through the matchup.
Still clicking offensively, the hosts broke out of their own zone with numbers that led to Ivanov snapping a quick shot that went just wide, but had the puck skip off the end boards and right back in front where it hit off the skate of Boville and into the net.
That resulted in the Soo making a goaltending change as backup Nathan Maguire entered in relief.
The T-Birds got one back, via a man advantage at 16:36, when Jackson Mead jammed in a loose puck laying to the side of Blind River’s Samuel Carreiras-Pata off a goal-mouth scramble.
Getting that back before the second intermission, Camden Cowan down low found McCrae easing in from the point and saw him crank in a drive to make it 5-1 after 40 minutes.
Heading to the third period, the Beavers put it away on the power play with 7:41 to go as Ryder Hill slammed in the another bounce off the end boards after a Cowan blast ricochetted out the other side of the net.
Hill’s tally was part of a night that saw him extend a consecutive game point streak to eight games.
Carreiras-Pata, who was solid throughout, helped Blind River close it down the rest of the way.
With the result, the Beavers move to .500 on the campaign at 7-7-1-0, while with the loss, the Soo slips to 11-4-0-2.
