Photos: Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Continuing their current heater, the Blind River Beavers skated to their 12th straight Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory Saturday by downing the Elliot Lake Vikings 5-2 at the Blind River Community Centre.
Rolling right along, red-hot Blind River gained the early edge on Elliot Lake by seeing Daniel Vasic tally twice on the power play.
He notched his initial effort during a two-man advantage after picking the bottom corner off a shot from the top of the right circle at 11:41.
Vasic then connected again moments later as he flew down the left wing and sizzled one by Vikings’ netminder Sam Keene.
Heading to the second period, Elliot Lake answered back in the latter half of the session with a couple of man advantage efforts to send the teams to the intermission knotted at 2-2.
Matthew Kallo put the visitors on the board at 13:22 when he moved in on the right side and fired one through Blind River goalie Noah Tegelaar.
The visitors then drew level three and a half minutes later thanks to Owen Kahl’s extra-man effort that saw him swat in a rebound into the open corner off a Nathan Marincola shot.
Countering quickly in the third, the Beavers struck twice early on to resume control.
Jack Robinson made it 3-2 at 1:51 after ripping one through a maze from the high slot.
Adding to that, Jacob Beemer matched that by swooping in and burying a loose puck from in close.
They then saw Josh Robinson seal the win with a shorthanded, empty-net effort in the late going, to cap off the result.
With the victory, Blind River improves to 26-8-0-0 overall and in defeat, Elliot Lake drops to 5-21-1-4.
