Photos – Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – An Owen King tally midway through the match-up proved to be the game-winner Sunday afternoon as the Blind River Beavers went on to double-up the Espanola Paper Kings 4-2 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at the Blind River Community Centre.
The Beavers began the scoring early as they broke out on a two-on-one with Aaron Dukeshire making a nice move and finishing off a King feed for his fourth of the season.
Adding another at 8:09, Tysen Sheridan notched his first NOJHL goal as he flew down the right wing and converted against Espanola netminder James Meredith.
Getting one back before the intermission, on a late power play, Graydon Guthrie redirected an Aiden Pethick point shot out of mid-air that got by the glove of Blind River starter Connor Dunham-Fox.
Heading to the second stanza, the home side went back up by two at 10:55 as King took a Keenan Conn feed on the right side and ripped it past Meredith.
Moving to the third period, the Paper Kings pulled closer once more off a well-placed lengthy bank pass out of their own zone by Luke Hill that was chased down by Cameron Menard, deep in Beavers’ territory, and snapped in.
Blind River followed that up though by coming out of their end in transition, which led to Nicolas Lofranco stuffing in a rebound of his own shot with 12:48 to play, for his initial league marker.
The Beavers then used a strong forecheck from there to wrap-up the home-ice victory.