Photos: Helene Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – A pair of Meguire Naughton deflection tallies, including one that proved to be the eventual game-winner helped send the Blind River Beavers on their way to a 5-2 triumph over the Cochrane Crunch Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at the Blind River Community Centre.
The home side were quick to connect in the contest as Naughton converted just over three minutes into the proceedings by tipping in a Dakota Seaman blast from the point.
Adding another at 13:21, the Beavers went up by a pair when Caleb Minns fired an attempt through the crease, from the right side, that hit the leg of teammate Ryan Doucette and bounced in past a helpless Michael Nickolau, who had no chance on the play.
Some more net-front presence by McNaughton helped him collect his second goal of the day as he once again neatly redirected a shot, this time by Jesse Dupuis from up high, while on the power play, in the early stages of the middle stanza.
A fourth Blind River tally came at 7:36 of the second compliments of Kyle Caron, who stuffed in his 11th of the campaign while parked in close on the Cochrane net.
The Crunch got themselves on the board later in the period when Joshua Liu won a race to the puck then sent a perfect cross-ice pass that found the tape of Tylen Iserhoff, who quickly whipped a shot that beat Beavers’ goalkeeper Patrick Boivin.
Adding some insurance in the third, James Ingram drove hard to the net from the corner and took the play wide before reaching across and tucking one past the pad of Nickolau at 2:17.
Getting closer, Jake Alton took a nice saucer pass from Alex Dionne in the slot and buried it to pick-up his 11th goal of the season that came with just over seven minutes remaining.
That tally proved to be the final one of the contest however as the Beavers held on from there to secure the home ice victory.
Boivin got the win for Blind River as he improved to 4-0-1-0 in his past five starts while Nickolau was credited with facing over 50 shots against in defeat.
