ESPANOLA, Ont. – The Espanola Paper Kings built up a three-goal lead deep into regulation, then had to withstand a late push by the Iroquois Falls Storm before eventually prevailing 4-3 Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at the Regional Recreation Complex.
The lone goal of the first period came in the waning moments when the Storm’s Simon Lemieux took a play put ahead by Alexandre St. Pierre off a faceoff and raced ahead before taking his chance wide and tucking the puck past the outstretched pad of Paper Kings’ netminder Mason Janicki at 19:51.
In the middle stanza, Espanola answered with an early equalizer thanks to Carter Drigo who took a drop pass from Tayden Smith and ripped it by Iroquois Falls goalkeeper Keenan Connely.
Still tied at 1-1 entering the third, the Paper Kings went ahead when Emerson DeGiacomo spotted Cain Savage coming in the back door with a crisp feed that was buried into the open net.
Extending their lead at 6:36, Carter Trudell whipped in his initial NOJHL tally by finishing off a down-low feed from Chase Cybulskie.
The home side then saw Luka Boggio notch his first in the league to extend the home side’s lead when he scored on a power play from distance.
Lemieux then brought the visitors closer as he finished off a nice individual rush that saw him rip one upstairs, high short side, on Janicki.
The Storm’s Jason Cyr then connected from a sharp angle shot that found its way in with just a couple of seconds remaining to round of the scoring as his club fell just short of a late rally.
