NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016
Late goals lift Rayside-Balfour over Soo Eagles
CHELMSFORD, Ont. – A Tristan Simm tally with 2:37 remaining in regulation was the game-winner as the Rayside-Balfour Canadians went on to defeat the visiting Soo Eagles 4-2 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Chelmsford Arena.
It was a tight-checking opening period that went scoreless with netminders MacKenzie Savard of the Canadians and Jack Deines stopping each shot they faced.
Action in the middle stanza saw both sides strike twice to knot the affair at 2-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Chad Denault opened the scoring for Rayside-Balfour 3:54 in the session before Landon Hubbard replied for Sault Ste. Marie a couple shifts later.
The power play allowed the Eagles to go in front midway through the contest on a Bradley Hofelich man advantage marker.
Up a man themselves in the latter stages of the second, the Canadians drew level on Bradey Johnson’s fifth of the campaign at 17:32.
It stayed that way until the late going, when, with overtime looming, Simm struck for the deciding goal.
The Soo pulled Deines as time was winding down in favour of an extra attacker, but Matthew Neault sealed the win for the home side with an empty netter with 28 seconds left to round out the night’s scoring.
Brett Whitehead had a pair of assists for Rayside-Balfour.
Shots on goal in the game were 34-34 apiece with Savard registering the win and Deines the defeat.
With the result, the Canadians improve to 7-3-1-0 on the season while the Soo slipped to 4-7-1-0 overall.
