BLIND RIVER, Ont. – An Evan Dantas effort on a two-on-one, a minute and 24 seconds into overtime, was the decider as the Elliot Lake Red Wings skated to a 3-2 decision over the Blind River Beavers Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at the Blind River Community Centre.
Striking first, the hometown Beavers connected 14 and a half minutes into the proceedings when Joshua Thompson pushed one through Red Wings’ netminder Sean Guerin on a play he began with a solid forecheck.
Answering back a few shifts later, Elliot Lake’s Charlie Wesholowski notched his third of the season as he neatly tipped in a Darcy Scott point shot out of mid-air that eluded Blind River goalkeeper Gavin Disano.
In the middle frame, the Red Wings went in front just over seven minutes into it thanks to Alex Antoine cleverly redirecting a Thomas Dimoulas feed past Disano from in close.
Notching the equalizer 7:24 into the third, Evan Fraccaro went hard around the net on a wrap around attempt that was stopped, but R.J. Dickie was right there the lift in the tying tally over a sprawled Guerin.
Heading to extra time, moments after a diving play by an Elliot Lake defender, thwarted a great chance for Blind River, the guests countered and had Dantas move up slowly on an odd-man rush where he took his time on the left side and fired the game-winner over the short-side shoulder of Disano to end it.
With the win, the Red Wings raised their record to 11-9-0-0 on the season while the Beavers picked up a point in the loss and fell to 12-4-1-2.
