NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014
Morin stops 55 as Blind River edges Sudbury
SUDBURY – Blind River Beavers netminder Jessie Morin stopped 55 of the 57 shots he faced to backstop his side past the Sudbury Nickel Barons 3-2 Wednesday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at McClelland Arena.
Despite getting outshot 19-9 in the opening frame Blind River scored the only two goals of the period.
Tyson MacLeod buried his team-leading 16th of the season 64 seconds into the contest to give the Beavers the early lead.
Five minutes after that Brandon Major beat Sudbury starter Mike Muzyka to put the visitors up a pair after 20 minutes.
The Nickel Barons pumped another 19 pucks on Morin in the second stanza, but could not solve the Beavers stopper in a session that was scoreless.
It was special teams that allowed Sudbury to finally beat Morin in the third as Austin Veleke connected on the power play at 4:44 to make it 2-1.
Not to be deterred Blind River answered back with a man advantage effort of their own eight minutes into the session as Tim Perks finished off the work of Trevor Simonick and Matthew Nault to restore the two-tally cushion.
The Nickel Barons added another power play effort with 3:02 to go courtesy of Brody Brunet, but could not get any closer before time ran out.
Muzyka made 21 saves for Sudbury, who fell to 16-29-0-6 on the season with the defeat.
With the victory Blind River improved to 8-36-0-4.
A trio of 7:30 p.m. starts make up the league schedule Friday including a pivotal one at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex in Kirkland Lake as the second place Gold Miners host the NOJHL-leading Soo Thunderbirds.
Also on tap Friday has Elliot Lake at home to North Bay and Espanola entertaining Blind River.
