ESPANOLA, Ont. – The Blind River Beavers rode the strength of a Caleb Serre hat trick and an assist to help them eventually hold off a late Espanola Express rally and pull out a 6-4 win Friday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at the Regional Recreation Complex.
Serre supplied Blind River’s initial two tallies on the night to put them up early.
Espanola got one back at 14:38 of the first period on Logan Fennema’s first NOJHL goal.
However, Max Khull made it 3-1 Beavers less than two minutes later.
Serre struck for his third of the night 1:49 into the middle stanza to extend his club’s lead.
Blind River kept coming and while on a power play added another with six and a half minutes left in the second when Joey Novak collected his first NOJHL goal to make it a 5-1 score for the visitors.
The Beavers’ Matthew Millan’s first as a member of the club midway through the third seemingly put the game away for the visitors, but the Express would rally late to make it interesting.
After Henry Laukkanen made it 6-2 at 16:55, Espanola continued to press and added another 38 seconds after that compliments of Joshua Zlatinsky.
The home side would add one more before time expired off the stick of Sam Blumburger to round out the night’s scoring.
Khull and Kaleb Peldjak each doled out two assists apiece to aid the winners cause.
Blind River outshot Espanola 53-43 on the night with Garret Boyonoski picking up the win and Jacob Hutchings the loss.