ESPANOLA, Ont. – Riding a four-goal night from Carter Drigo, the Espanola Paper Kings went on to dump the Soo Eagles 5-2 in a penalty-filled Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter Saturday at the Regional Recreation Complex.
The Paper Kings broke the stalemate in dramatic fashion late in a chippy first period as Drigo was obstructed on a shorthanded breakaway.
On his attempt, he came in slowly on the side, then moved to the middle and wired a shot into the bottom left corner on Eagles’ netminder Dalton Hoornstra.
Heading to the middle session, the red-hot Drigo scored again by connecting during a five-on-three as he quickly whipped in a feed put his way by Joseph Coates.
On the man advantage midway through the matchup, the NOJHL’s leading point-getter among rookies, Espanola’s Owen Smith cranked in a blast from the slot that flew by Hoornstra off an Emerson De Giacomo screen.
Sault Ste. Marie got one back in another infraction-laden period as Anden Marceau collected his 30th overall as he raced in alone with pace and took it wide before sliding the puck past the outstretched pad of Paper Kings’ goaltender Logan Vale.
Drigo kept it going moments into the third as a harmless-looking dump in with his team down a man took a favourable bounce and skipped in front that allowed him to hit his hat trick into the open side past an unsuspecting Hoornstra.
He then tallied for the 12th time in his past four games with his fourth of the evening by going hard to the net on an odd-man rush with Graydon Guthrie and steering in a pass put to the crease.
The Eagles did get one back to conclude the scoring when Logan Stawizynski darted down the left wing with speed before snapping a shot past Vale for his 21st goal of the season.
With the outcome, Espanola secured a playoff spot in the upcoming postseason while improving to 23-17-1-3 overall.
In a second straight setback, the Eagles fell to 20-21-2-1.
