BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Thursday night saw the Blind River Beavers and Timmins Rock skate to back-and-forth 5-5 overtime tie at the Blind River Community Centre.
Some early pressure brought about the night’s first goal when the Beavers’ A.J. Saadeh blasted in a puck from the left circle that got by Rock netminder Dryden Riley, three and a half minutes into the match-up.
The back portion of the session saw each side tally twice to make it 3-2 Blind River through one period of play.
After Jonah McIndoo made it 2-0 at 10:19 by ripping a shot through the legs of Riley, Reece Liu put Timmins on the board as he raced down the right wing and elected to shoot on a two-on-one and wired one over the blocker of Beavers’ starter Bronx Bodnar.
Answering that less than a minute later, Wyatt Gibson notched his 15th of the season as Shea Crewson took a big hit to get him the puck that he collected and sent off the post and in.
Pulling back to within one at 17:18, the Rock’s Edan Etheridge came in on the left side and snapped his chance through the five-hole.
In the second stanza, the home side went up 4-2 after Mason Taylor scored from up top.
Capitalizing on the evening’s initial power play, Liu brought the visitors closer once more as he cranked a blast off iron and into the net at 17:37.
Timmins then tied it in the third when Kaeden McArthur drove hard down the right wing and sizzled a wrist shot in the left corner on Bodnar.
Getting a go-ahead marker on the next shift, Clark Scaddan lifted in a loose puck laying between the circles to give him points in four straight.
A strong forecheck in the corner helped Blind River to equalize and send it to extra time, with under four minutes remaining in regulation, that saw Kalyn McQueen work a play to the top of the crease that was knocked in by Rylan Gibbs.
From there, the seven-minute OT failed to produce a winner and saw the clubs pick-up a point apiece in the standings.
