BLIND RIVER, Ont. – The Soo Eagles stayed hot after picking up a 5-3 victory versus the Blind River Beavers in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Saturday at the Blind River Community Centre.
It was the Beavers who began the scoring while shorthanded when defenceman Ethan McLean whipped a play out of his own one along the boards and saw a favourable bounce that allowed Ryder Hill to race in alone on a breakaway where he made a quick cut to his left and sent a backhand past Eagles’ netminder Dalton Hoornstra at 11:10.
The goal sees Hill extend a point streak to seven.
Still on the man advantage though, Sault Ste. Marie’s Ethan Hoff countered with an equalizer as tallied for the sixth time in his past three contests by batting in a puck out of mid-air from the left of Blind River starter Mason Janicki.
The surging Hoff then supplied another prior to the first intermission when he took in the feed in the slot from Micah Seery and roofed his chance high over the blocker of Janicki.
In the middle frame, the Soo went up by a pair after Anden Marceau finished off the leftovers off a Coulson Bell opportunity.
Pulling back to within one in the final minute of the second, the Beavers’ Camden Cowan collected his 13th marker by banking one in from the left of Hoornstra.
Answering that early in the third, saw the Eagles’ Jacob Peterson score for a third straight game as he sent an attempt to the target from a sharp angle and saw it hit off a Blind River defenceman and find its way in at 1:26.
Logan Stawizynski that added some insurance for the Soo midway through the stanza and he collected his 20th goal by quickly pumping in a Nolan Nemecek feed from down low.
The assist helped Nemecek move to a seven-game heater, points wise.
Hill did get one more for his side thanks to a defensive redirection to round out the scoring.
Now with 10 wins, and a tie, in their past 11 outings, the Eagles move over .500 for the first time this season, after starting 0-8-0-1.
They have gone 20-11-2-1 since, improving to 20-19-2-1 overall.
With the loss Beavers drop to 13-25-0-4.
