Photos: Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – The initial Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League hat trick by Jonah McIndoo helped the Blind River Beavers rally from an early deficit and send them on their way to a 6-4 come from behind victory over the Elliot Lake Vikings Thursday in a match-up at the Blind River Community Centre.
Striking first, the visiting Vikings got on the board eight minutes into the proceedings when Carter Carriere fired a pass across to Justin Pichor, who wired an attempt from the top of the right circle high and past Beavers’ starter Bronx Bodnar.
Building on that, Elliot Lake tacked on another at 15:29 when Ivan Kedrov raced down the ice and while splitting the Blind River defence fired a crisp wrist shot and picked the corner.
That also saw the home side opt to make a goaltending change, with Connor Dunham-Fox entering in relief.
Not done there though, the visitors took a 3-0 lead into the intermission on a late power play that saw Anthony Bertrand convert by snapping one in from a sharp angle with just 16 seconds left in the session, to run a point streak to five in succession.
Getting one back on an early man advantage in the second stanza, Blind River worked a play around nicely off a draw and saw McIndoo whip one from the high slot that eluded the Vikings’ Ryder Lally.
It was more from McIndoo two minutes after that as he used a dump in that hit off the end boards right back out to him and quickly converted.
The Beavers then tied it before the period was half complete when Jack Kruiderink banked an attempt from below the goal line off an Elliot Lake defender and in.
Regrouping, the Vikings retook the lead near the midway point as Pichor potted his second of the night as he wheeled out from the side boards and sizzled a shot past a screened Dunham-Fox.
Up a skater heading into the third period, Blind River picked up an equalizer off the stick of Kalyn McQueen who slammed in a rebound from the left of Lally.
Coming right back, the Beavers notched another 15 seconds later as McIndoo tucked in a backhand for his third of the evening.
McQueen then capped off the comeback with a late empty netter to round out the scoring.
The win sees the Beavers improve to 8-3-1-0 while the Vikings dropped to 2-6-0-0 in defeat.
