Game Photos: Dal Photography
FRENCH RIVER – A six-goal second period outburst saw the French River Rapids bust open a close game and go on their way to a convincing 10-3 decision over the Cochrane Crunch Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at Noelville Arena.
The home town Rapids were first to strike on the night as defenceman Adam Boucher put one off the end boards that skipped right in front to Cooper Bowman who put the puck into the side of the cage for his eighth of the season.
French River then made it 2-0 before the match-up was 10 minutes old as Spencer Hughes fed Chase Lefebvre in the slot where he spun and slid a low backhand under the outstretched pad of Cochrane goalkeeper Michael Nickolau.
Countering, the Crunch got on the board a couple of minutes later thanks to Brett Cameron tipping in a chance off some nice work by Jake Alton.
The visitors then drew level late in the session on a two-on-one that saw Alexander Thompson foiled once, but he had time to collect the rebound and put it past Rapids’ netminder Cole Sheffield from the right of the crease to give him tallies in three straight outings.
Cochrane then took the lead five minutes into the middle session as recently acquired Cale Anderson picked off a clearing attempt from behind the net and quickly moved in front and put one off the post and in for his first NOJHL tally.
However, French River came back 60 seconds after that as a shot from point found its way through a pile-up of players, with the equalizer being credited to Owen Ethier, which was his first in the league.
Not done there, the Rapids struck again moments later with Levi Siau sliding in a back hand from the slot as Nickolau scrambled to get back into position.
Another quick marker in succession came at 7:59 off a one-timer that was stopped, but Lefebvre was right there to chip in the loose puck.
Continuing their outburst, Leo Chambers extended the cushion with his club’s four straight offensive effort.
More came on the power play at 15:46 when Siau slammed in his second of the night off a rebound between the hash marks.
The onslaught continued late in the session as Bowman came down the right wing and zipped one into the back of the net to make it 8-3.
Ben DiGiallonardo entered the net for Cochrane to begin the final frame, but Lefevbre greeted him with his third of the night at 5:28.
Hitting double digits, French River got a 10th tally courtesy of Dominik Godin in the latter stages of the contest to round out the scoring.
Lefebvre was also credited with a pair of assists for a five-point night while Hughes had a trio of helpers.
Sheffield finished with 38 stops to get the win for French River.
Nickolau suffered the defeat, seeing 36 attempts fired his way while DiGiallonardo handled 12 of 14 in third period relief.
