Photos: Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – Owen King’s second goal of the game, coming with just 39 seconds remaining in regulation, lifted the Blind River Beavers to a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Timmins Rock in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Sunday matinee at the Blind River Community Centre.
Striking in the final minute of the first period, the visiting Rock opened the scoring when a cross-ice pass from Kaeden McArthur found Jack Kelly driving down the slot and saw him bury his chance through the legs of Beavers’ netminder Bronx Bodnar, for his team-leading 15th tally of the season.
Bouncing back early in the second stanza, Blind River scored twice to tie it, then go ahead.
King’s 23rd marker, which paces the club, knotted the affair at 2:28 as he benefited from a turnover deep in Timmins territory, then spun and beat the Rock’s Sebastien Brassard, who was making his initial NOJHL start, and second appearance.
Mattis Lafond’s first league marker then put the home side in front when he took a draw won back to him at the point, then snapped in a low shot while moving to mid-ice.
Building on that, the Beavers added another midway through the contest when defenceman Shea Crewson joined a rush and while darting down the left wing, pumped a shot up top on Brassard.
Pulling back to within one late in the second, Timmins broke out in transition and saw Alexis Tremblay wire one off the post and in at 18:16.
A missed penalty shot attempt by Blind River in the third kept the score at 3-2.
The Rock would knot the affair at 18:27 as a sharp angle attempt from Kelly clipped off a defender’s stick and bounced past Bodnar, just as Timmins had pulled their goalkeeper for an extra attacker.
However, with overtime looming, King won it as he skated over the blueline, and while using a Rock defenceman as a screen, fired an attempt on target that managed to get through Brassard for the game-winner.
With his tallies, King has now scored at least one goal in each of his past five outings.
In the triumph, the Beavers improve to 19-9-1-1 on the season while the Rock fell to 20-11-0-0.
