ESPANOLA, Ont. – Making an impressive statement, the Espanola Paper Kings got four goals from Cameron Menard Friday en route to a convincing 9-4 victory over the French River Rapids in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Regional Recreation Complex.
Espanola wasted little time in opening the scoring when Menard took a Kaden Wicklander feed in the left circle and quickly pumped it past French River starter Nicholas Tarantella, 55 seconds into the proceedings.
Going up by a pair during a man advantage, Graydon Guthrie took his time behind the net with the puck and spotted an unmarked Menard in the slot, who whipped in his second of the night at 8:05.
The Paper Kings kept coming and made it 3-0 midway through the first as Wicklander made a couple of nice moves then fed Jason Galante between the circles who quickly buried his initial NOJHL marker.
A goaltending change that saw Brock Grein enter for the Rapids, but Espanola greeted him with tallies from Grant Booth, who extended a point streak to seven straight outings, and Lucas Dubois, to break it open.
Booth bagged his goal from stuffing it in from the left side while Dubois converted by wiring a short-side shot past the blocker of Grein.
Moving to the middle frame, the home side kept it going as Luke Hill sent Wicklander through the French River defence and saw him convert during a power play chance at 2:06.
An impressive dash by Menard saw him weave through traffic and hit his hat trick to extend the lead for the hosts.
The Rapids got one back at 6:05 thanks to Michael Christopoulos who took a slight drop pass from teammate Bryson Villeneuve and ripped it through Paper Kings’ starter James Meredith.
A fourth for Menard made it 8-1 as he stuffed in a feed from Booth who had darted around the around net and put a play back through the crease.
Up a skater, Dominic Bzdyl clicked for the Rapids as he sent a shot from the left point past a screened Meredith.
Third period play saw the visitors click on an early extra-man effort that saw Nolan Masson fire one from up high that made by a blocked-out Espanola goalkeeper.
Another French River marker saw Masson pick off a play at his own blueline and race in alone on a shorthanded breakaway then neatly tuck in his second of the evening with eight and a half minutes to play.
Capping off the scoring in the late going, Dubois batted in a backhand during a power play to finish things off.
Meredith won his third straight start helping the Paper Kings improve to 6-6-1-0 on the season.
A fourth straight defeat saw the Rapids drop to 3-6-0-2.
The teams will finish off a weekend home-and-home Saturday in a 7 p.m. start at Noelville Arena.
