Photos: Justin Cairns
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Blind River Beavers trio of Daniel Vasic, Jakob Kovacs and Jesse Dupuis played a part in a trio of tallies to help send their side to a 4-1 win over the Soo Eagles in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Saturday night at Pullar Stadium.
Connecting deep in the first period, Blind River took a lead into the intermission when Vasic stuffed in a loose puck, laying in the crease, for his initial NOJHL regular season marker.
In the second stanza, another late goal put the Beavers up 2-0 after 40 minutes as a dump in hit off the end boards that Eagles’ netminder Anthony Zolezzi could not contain, which allowed Kovacs to swoop in and bury his 20th goal of the season, at 18:44.
Action in the final frame saw Blind River put the game away in the latter half of the session, to go up by four.
Vasic’s second of night made it 3-0 at 11:19 as he neatly guided in a Kovacs feed, before Wyatt Gibson found the mark just over a minute later, by swatting in a loose puck over a downed Zolezzi.
Sault Ste. Marie eventually dashed Gavin Disano’s shutout bid after the Beavers’ could not locate the puck, which allowed Zach Sweitzer to fire it in from along the goal line with 2:23 remaining in regulation.
That late marker rounded out the night’s scoring though with Blind River moving to 15-8-0-0 on the campaign and the Eagles dropping to 16-6-0-1 overall.