BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Down a goal with under eight minutes remaining in the third period, the Blind River Beavers tallied twice late to pull out a narrow 2-1 decision over the Elliot Lake Wildcats Saturday in a tightly-contested Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League West Division affair at the Blind River Community Centre.
It was a goaltender’s battle most of the night as both Blind River’s Dominic Boily and Elliot Lake’s Jonathan Lemaire were both solid.
Neither side would connect offensively in a scoreless first frame as the two teams hit the intermission in search of the night’s opening tally.
It was more of the same in the second stanza as the match-up stayed 0-0 through 40 minutes of on-ice action.
The Wildcats would finally break the deadlock just past the midway mark of the third as Kelvin Albert finished off a Noah Bradburn feed.
Answering, the Beavers drew level at 12:40 as Milos Todorvic finally solved Lemaire to even the proceedings.
The hosts then got the game-winner off the stick of Lucas Adams, as his 13th of the season with just under five minutes left in regulation proved to be the difference maker as he clicked on a late power play chance.
Blind River pumped 48 shots on Lemaire on the night, who kept his club in it the entire night, to pull out the victory.
Boily meanwhile made 20 saves to pick up the win against his former club.
The triumph lifts the Beavers back into a tie for first place in the division with the idle Rayside-Balfour Canadians as both teams boast 30 wins and 64 points each on the season.
