GALLERY: Blind River needs OT to hold off Espanola

BLIND RIVER, Ont. – The Blind River Beavers withstood a trio of late power play goals by the Espanola Express before eventually pulling out a narrow 6-5 decision in overtime Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at the Blind River Community Centre.

Espanola did score first in this one with Draper MacLean putting the visitors on the board nearly seven minutes in.

However, Blind River stormed back by notching a trio of tallies before the opening period was out on efforts supplied by Milos Todorovic, Blake McNally and Jake Behnen.

Up a skater to commence the second stanza, the Beavers went up 4-1 a minute in with Lucas Adams scoring on the power play.

Reaching the 10-goal plateau on the year, Josh Boucher put one in for the Express at 12:36 as the guests pulled closer.

In the third, Adams tacked on a man advantage effort at 7:39 to put the home side seemingly in control of the contest.

Then while up a skater, Espanola’s Luke Lyszyk made it 5-3 with 3:07 to play.

Going back to the power play with 1:22 remaining, Lyszyk struck again 10 seconds later to bring the guests back to within one.

Then a third straight extra-man opportunity in the final minute helped Espanola tie it with Lsyzyk completing an improbable natural hat trick before time expired to send it to OT.

In the extra session however, the Beavers regrouped and got the game-winner 1:13 off the stick of Devon Savignac to salvage a narrow victory.

Mattias Salem dished out three assists in defeat for the Express, including on his club’s final two offensive efforts.

Shots on net finished 49-40 in favour of Espanola with Jackson Hjelle getting the win while Carson Boutin kept his team in it lot enough to pick up a point in the setback.