Blind River bumps Espanola 7-1

NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE

Release Date: Sunday, March 5, 2017

Blind River bumps Espanola 7-1

ESPANOLA, Ont. – The Blind River Beavers picked up a hat trick from Yianni Liarakos to help his side skate to a 7-1 victory over the Espanola Express in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee Sunday at the Regional Recreation Complex.

Riley Smith did give Espanola an early lead in the match-up only to see Blind River strike twice before the first period was complete on goals courtesy of Rockford Copiskey and Caleb Serre.

The Beavers built on their lead with a trio of tallies in the middle session to go up 5-1 after 40 minutes thanks to efforts to a pair of efforts from Liarakos and a single off the stick of Mark Khull.

Tristan Bernard added to the onslaught at 11:33 of the third before Lairakos finished off his hat trick in the late going to register his team-leading 39th goal of 2016-17 in the process.

Cole Peck, Zak Lambrecht and Mark Bastianello each chipped in with two assists for Blind River.

Myles Hektor started for the Beavers and picked up the win stopping 21 of 22 while Aidan Doak entered in relief to begin the third period and stopped all 12 attempts he saw.

Mitchell Jacobson faced 49 shots in defeat for the Express.

With the result, Blind River wraps up regular season play with a franchise single-season record 32 victories and will now take on the Rayside-Balfour Canadians in a best-of-seven West Division semifinal.

As for Espanola, their campaign comes to a close with a sixth place finish in the West posting an overall mark of 9-45-1-1.