Photos: Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – A big day offensively by Caleb Minns and the shutout goaltending of Charlie Burns helped the Blind River Beavers bury the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 10-0 Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at the Blind River Community Centre.
Going to the power play midway through the first period, the Beavers capitalized on it and saw Evan Fraccaro return a cross-ice pass across to Minns, who promptly whipped in his fifth goal of the season, as he beat Gold Miners’ starter Braydon Garnhart, to give him points in three straight.
A two-tally outburst, less than a minute apart, late in the session saw the home side take a 3-0 lead into the intermission.
R.J. Dickie’s initial league tally, which came at 18:17, saw him finish off an odd-man rush as a Minns’ feed allowed him to put one upstairs on Garnhart.
Blind River then connected again on the next shift when Joshua Thompson scored on a backhand from the top of the crease.
It was more from the hosts in the middle stanza, beginning with Jesse Dupuis deflecting a Nicholas Brady shot from the left point at 2:19.
Mins then added another three minutes later as he completed a Josh Tomasi set-up.
Continuing to click, the Beavers went ahead by six on a Jacob Kovacs effort at 12:23 as he finished off the offensive zone work of Dupuis and Minns with a wrister from the slot.
That also resulted in Kirkland Lake back-up John Lloyd entering the net for the visitors the rest of the way.
Boasting a perfect 9-0 record when leading after two periods, Blind River saw that mark reach double digits in the final frame, as they went up by seven early with Fraccaro taking a loose puck across the crease before lifting it in for his ninth goal overall.
Not done there, the Beavers extended their margin to eight win Matthew Green’s first NOJHL goal as he fired a shot from the right point that clipped off a Kirkland Lake defender and found its way into the net.
Minns was then left with plenty of space to steer in his third of the afternoon before Matthew Kallo finished off the romp with a blast from up high on the left side for his opening league marker.
The shutout for Burns was his third of the campaign, which ties him for the league-lead with Patrick Boivin of Timmins.
