BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Riley Nadeau of the Blind River Beavers had a career-high six points and five goals Sunday to help lead his side to a 9-4 victory over the Espanola Express in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Sunday afternoon at the Blind River Community Centre.
Blind River got the early jump on Espanola in the first period on tallies from Sam Harris and Nadeau to go up by a pair midway through the frame before Bret McInall got one back for the Express at 11:01.
A back and forth middle stanza saw five goals scored, including three by the visitors, to knot the affair at 4-4 after 40 minutes.
McInall had two of them for Espanola to give him a hat trick and he set-up Diego Pasula for his club’s other marker in the session.
Nadeau and Ethan Graham accounted for the Beavers’ tallies in the session.
Moving on to the third, Blind River broke it open by striking five times to win going away.
Nadeau had the first two early in the stanza with Justin Mauro adding another for the hosts at 4:24.
Then late in the contest Nadeau finished off his big day with his fifth goal at 17:33 of the stanza before Nathan Balkwill finished off the outburst in the final seconds to secure the victory.
Graham and Harris chipped in with three assists apiece to go with their goals for the Beavers.
Thomson Phinney made 28 saves to pick up the win for Blind River with Odyssey Cole Hopkin making five stops in late relief.
Joel Rainville suffered the loss for the Express as he finished with 32 and back-up Alex Allison stopping five after coming in during the third period.
