Photos: Turnbull’s Northern Photography
IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – An Aaron Dukeshire breakaway marker, early in overtime, proved to be the difference maker as the Blind River Beavers edged the Iroquois Falls 2-1 in a hard-fought, well-played, Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair Friday at Jus Jordan Arena.
Play in the first period went scoreless, compliments of the night’s starting netminders, the Beavers’ Connor Dunham-Fox and Justin Sullivan of the Storm, who were credited with 15 stops apiece.
Moving to the second stanza, the continued efforts of the goalkeepers kept it knotted at 0-0 through 40 minutes of play.
Blind River did break the deadlock early in the third when Keenan Conn connected at 3:42 with he pressured the puck off a defender and lifted a spinning backhand by Sullivan.
Battling back to tie it, Iroquois Falls helped force extra time with just over three minutes remaining off an impressive effort from forward Jordan Mayo.
On the tying tally, Mayo worked his way along the boards from the right side, then powered his way to the net where he took his opportunity cross-crease and neatly tucked in the equalizer.
Heading to OT, after Dunham-Fox foiled an Iroquois Falls chance in the opening moments, Blind River won it right after that as Dukeshire darted in alone on Sullivan from his own blueline and pumped the game-winner high into the top right-hand corner to end it 44 seconds in.
The tally now gives Dukeshire points in five straight.
With the win, the Beavers improve to 15-7-1-0.
While earning a point in defeat, the Storm slipped to 8-14-0-1 on the campaign.
