Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – An Owen van de Ven goal with six and a half minutes remaining in regulation held up as the game-winner as the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners went on to outlast the Blind River Beavers 6-4 Friday in back-and-forth Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
It was visiting Blind River that began the scoring, moments into a man advantage, as defenceman Mattis Lafond took a feed from Camden Cowan and quickly snapped it from distance in eluding Kirkland Lake starter Glen McInnes, three minutes into the contest.
With the assist, Cowan extended a point streak to five in a row.
Tying it up in the latter stages of the first period, the Gold Miners’ Fynn Manttari fired a low shot to the net from the top of the left circle that was nearly steered in by Will Cameron past Beavers netminder Mason Janicki to give him a goal in his NOJHL debut.
Heading to the middle frame, another early effort, while up a skater, saw Ryder Hill fire one past a screened McInnes for his team-leading 15th.
Answering once more, Owen Kelly drew the home side even at 1:45 when he raced in on an odd-man rush on the left wing and wired one high on Janicki.
Not done there, Kirkland Lake struck again right off the draw thanks to Jake Williams who jumped into the Blind River zone where he swiped the puck off a defender then pumped one in from a sharp angle to make it 3-2.
Continuing to exchange tallies, the Beavers’ Caleb Walker benefitted from a turnover and lifted in a backhand from the top of the crease to knot the affair once more.
Still tied into the third, the Gold Miners needed just 11 seconds to go up 4-3 thanks to Vaive Hickey ripping in a one-timer, after being fed by Kelly from below the goal line.
Blind River then came back to even the score once more as Wyatt Jarratt connected at 2:07 with a nice tip in off a Lafond point shot.
Then in the back half of the session, van de Ven came in the back door from the point and scooped up a Kelly pass from in deep and sent a backhand into the net.
After a late Beavers’ timeout, they got their goalkeeper out for an extra attacker, in an effort to knot the score and send it to overtime, but Kirkland Lake’s Nathan Harper muscled his way through a pair of defenders before diving and notching an insurance marker in the final minute to secure the victory.
With the outcome, the Gold Miners improved to 12-23-0-4 and move into a tie for eighth spot in the NOJHL standings with the 12-23-0-4 Beavers.
