SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – Evan Fraccaro of the Blind River Beavers collected the only goal in the shootout as his team prevailed with a 2-1 triumph over the Soo Eagles Wednesday in tightly-contested Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at venerable Pullar Stadium.
Meeting for a second-straight night in Michigan, it was the visiting Beavers that picked up the initial tally in this one.
It was a result of some hard work along the side boards from Sam McCue as he battled along the left side boards and worked the puck from there into the face off circle where he snapped in his first NOJHL goal, by beating Eagles’ netminder Logan Raffaele at 16:11 of the first period.
Heading to the middle stanza, it remained 1-0 Blind River until the final minute of the frame, as while on the power play, Seth Ferguson backpedaled and sent a cross-ice pass over to Chase Tallaire, who ripped a shot into the top right hand corner, over the glove of goalkeeper Patrick Boivin.
Moving to the final frame, neither side would convert offensively, thus sending it overtime to try and provide a winner.
The five-minute OT also failed to settle things to send it to extra shots.
Shooting first, Fraccaro cruised down the ice and calmly slid a low shot, stick side, that got past Raffaele into the left corner.
That would be enough, as the Eagles missed on all three of their opportunities, as did Blind River on their final two, as the visitors skated away with the narrow road win.
With the result, the Beavers improved to 24-16-5-0 on the season while the Eagles dropped to 30-9-2-2.
