CHELMSFORD, Ont. – Oliver Smith produced his third straight three-point performance to help lead the Rayside-Balfour Canadians to their 11 consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory Thursday night as they bested the Soo Eagles 6-3 at Chelmsford Arena.
Sault Ste. Marie did score first in the contest just 80 seconds into the match-up on a Dominic Skrelja effort.
However, Rayside-Balfour rallied with a four-goal outburst to gain the upper hand on the night.
After Mitchell Martin tied it at 4:10, Mathieu Dokis-Dupuis, Smith and Giordano Biondi connected in under a five-minute span to give the Canadians a 4-1 edge after one period of play.
In the middle stanza, the Canadians added to the cushion at 12:16 when Nicholas DeGrazia converted on a man advantage opportunity with the rookie picking up his 26th tally of the campaign.
The Eagles did get one back a couple of shifts later off the stick of Ryan Dacks only to see Smith strike with another before the frame was complete as RBC took a 6-2 lead into the third.
There, the Soo got another five minutes in with Skrelja adding another for the visitors to draw the guests closer.
That was as close as they would get though as Rayside-Balfour netminder David Bowen finished with 31 stops to come away victorious to win his ninth straight start.
Shane Brancato in goal for the Eagles faced 39 attempts in defeat.
Martin chipped in with two assists to join Smith with three-points apiece.
