Photos: Hélène Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – A Caleb Walker, in close tally, a minute and a half into overtime lifted the Blind River Beavers to a narrow 5-4 victory over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners in a back-and-forth Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Sunday matinee at the Blind River Community Centre.
The Beavers wasted little time in opening the scoring as Alex Proulx connected 47 seconds into his Blind River debut by whipping in a rising wrist shot from the slot that beat Gold Miners’ starter Morgan Hyndman.
That proved to be the lone marker of the session as the clubs reached the initial intermission.
Kirkland Lake came back to tie it 7:14 into the middle stanza thanks to veteran forward Mason Brownlee as he took a drop pass from Ben Lyons in the left circle and fired an attempt that leaked through Beavers’ goaltender Samuel Carreiras-Pata.
Regaining the lead a minute and a half later, the home side clicked on the power play with Ilian Danilov taking a cross-ice pass from Austin Schultz at the point where he moved in and wired one through traffic that found the top corner on a screened Hyndman.
Answering with another equalizer at 13:37, the visitors leveled it once more by pressuring a turnover that led to Lyons converting from the left side.
A third lead on the day saw Blind River notch another after Schultz sent a shot from up top that went off the end boards and out the other side where a waiting Jake Bond hammered it into the open side.
End-to-end they continued to go with the Gold Miners’ Brownlee striking shorthanded in the final moments of the frame as he chipped a play ahead out of his own zone and raced in alone before zipping a shot low blocker side to knot the affair at 3-3 after two.
In the third period, Kirkland Lake took their first lead after winning a draw in their own zone that led to Brady Baun banking the puck ahead where Liam MacDonald dashed down on a two-on-one that he sent over to Owen O’Grady, who promptly buried it with 12:20 to go.
It was then the Beavers’ turn to tie it off some crisp passing during a man advantage that was finished off by Austin Roberts as his shot clipped off a defender and pinballed into the net from the high slot to help send it to OT.
Persevering in the extra session, Walker won it for Blind River after taking a nice dish put to the top of the crease by Schultz, Walker cut hard to his left and deposited the game-winner for his side’s second win in as many days.
