Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – The Blind River Beavers got a couple of goals from Jakob Kovacs to help them defeat the Elliot Lake Vikings 4-1 Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at the Blind River Community Centre.
Needing less than a minute to open the scoring, the Beavers’ Daniel Vasic picked off a play in front of the Elliot Lake blueline and chipped it ahead to Kovacs, who wheeled into the Vikings’ zone and wired a wrister over the shoulder of a downed Sam Keene in net.
The tally gives Kovacs and Vasic points in five straight outings apiece.
Coming back to tie it at 3:52, Elliot Lake drew level in similar fashion when Carter Carriere pressured a turnover in mid-ice, which helped Noah Aboflan skate in and put a pass across on the tape of Nathan Marincola, who pumped a top shelf shot past Blind River starter Noah Tegelaar.
Still knotted at one into the second stanza, the Beavers regained the lead moments after a big pad save by Tegelaar.
After the stop, defenceman Andrey Manov collected the loose puck and began an end-to-end rush that saw him snap an attempt past a Vikings’ defender to elude a partially screened Keene and find its way into the bottom left corner for the eventual game-winner.
Adding another right after that, Blind River was gifted a giveaway at centre ice, while two-men short, which allowed Michael Gallagher to skate in alone and put one through the five-hole to make it 3-1 after 40 minutes.
Adding to their edge early in the third, Jesse Dupuis put a feed in front from behind the goal line and saw Kovacs rip it upstairs for his second of the day in rounding out the scoring.
With the victory, Beavers raised their overall record to 17-8-0-0, while in defeat, the Vikings fell to 4-14-1-3.
