Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – The Blind River Beavers bounced back from an early deficit and used the strength of three second period tallies to skate to a 4-1 victory over the Elliot Lake Red Wings Wednesday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Centennial Arena.
Opening the night’s scoring near the four-minute mark of the contest, Elliot Lake’s Zachary Vickerman beat Blind River starter Gavin Disano for his 10th tally of the season.
On that play, he came down the left wing and got past a pair of defenders before moving the puck to Evan Dantas, who quickly returned it, and saw Vickerman finish off the swift give-and-go.
Staying 1-0 for the home side into the middle stanza, Caleb Minns drew the Beavers level to give him goals in three consecutive outings.
It came about when he tipped in an Andrey Manov attempt from the point for his team-leading 18th of the campaign.
The guests then went in front past the midway mark of the proceedings with Gavin Rocha whipping one in from the high slot after his club controlled a faceoff deep in Elliot Lake territory.
Adding another moments before the second intermission, Jesse Dupuis stuffed in a rebound off an Ethan Pegg shot from the right point at 19:43.
In the final frame, the score remained the same deep into the match-up when the Red Wings picked up a late power play and also pulled Guerin to have an additional skater in an effort to pull closer.
However, Blind River’s Joshua Thompson picked off a play just inside his own blueline then moved into the neutral zone where he iced the triumph from centre ice at 19:02, with a shorthanded empty netter to round out the scoring.
The win for Disano improved his single-season total to a personal best of 12, while helping the Beavers take their third triumph in a row and improve to 25-9-2-2 overall.
In defeat, slumping Elliot Lake dropped a 12th straight result and fell to 12-22-1-2.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
