Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – A Braden Twigg tally, off a redirection, with just over 14 minutes remaining held up as the game-winner as the Elliot Lake Red Wings went on to edge the Blind River Beavers 4-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League West Division game at Centennial Arena.
Picking up an early power play, Elliot Lake used that to take the lead when Zachary Vickerman chipped one over Blind River starter Gavin Disano from the right of the crease.
Another Red Wings’ strike saw them go up by a pair at 7:28, by capitalizing on a two-on-one, as Thomas Sefton finished off a Kaden Laverdiere cross-ice feed.
Getting one back midway through the contest, the Beavers got a break as a puck skipped over a Elliot Lake defenceman’s stick, which allowed Gavin Rocha to race down the ice on a breakaway.
On that play he calmly waited for netminder Sean Guerin to commit before he whipped one upstairs for his fourth of the campaign.
Regaining their two-goal, Alex Antoine connected at 17:59 as his attempted pass towards the net was inadvertently knocked in out of mid-air by a Blind River player.
The Beavers answered however in the final moments of the period thanks to Trevor Zimmer completing a nice three-way passing play with Evan Fraccaro and Rocha at 19:39.
In the third, the Red Wings got what proved to be the game-winner from Twigg as redirected a Ryan Daponte attempt from the left point just enough to get past Disano.
Drawing closer with 5:35 to go, Caleb Minns slammed in a loose puck from the left of Guerin, who could not locate it time off a Jacob Kovacs effort from the slot.
Blind River would not get any closer however before time expired as the home side skated away with the victory.
With the win, the Red Wings improved to 9-9-0-0 overall while the Beavers fell to 11-4-0-2 in defeat.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
