ESPANOLA, Ont. – Getting goals from five different players, the Espanola Paper Kings used their well-balanced effort to skate past the Iroquois Falls Storm 5-4 Friday in what was a wild Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League end-to-end affair at the Regional Recreation Complex.
The Paper Kings needed just 22 seconds to commence the evening’s scoring when a spinning and falling William Shaw slid in his first NOJHL goal in beating Storm starter Alex Hall.
Tying it up off a late turnover in the first period saw Martin Brassard of Iroquois Falls pick-off a clearing attempt and race in alone on Espanola’s Logan Vale, then cut to his left where he slid in the equalizer at 18:31.
In the second frame, the home side went to work on the power play near the five-minute mark when Grayden Guthrie took a cross-ice feed from Owen Smith and whipped it in from the left circle.
Pulling even once more at 7:15, the Storm’s Michael Karadinovic fired a low shot that was deemed by the officials to have gone in for his initial NOJHL tally.
Coming right back, another man advantage effort put the Paper Kings back on top less than two minutes later thanks to Carter Drigo who took a pass from Guthrie and pumped it in from the left side.
Continuing to go back and forth, Iroquois Falls drew even yet again as Bruce Grey moved in from the point off a draw and wired a shot into the right corner with just over half a game to play.
Yet another lead change saw Espanola’s Joseph Coates run a point streak to eight as he knocked in a backhand from the slot.
Maintaining the script, after Simon Lemieux drew the guests level once more as he went hard to the net and steered in a pass put to the crease by Mathieu Ouellette.
The league-leading point getter among rookies, Smith, made it 5-4 Paper Kings after 40 minutes as he found himself free in front and snapped in his 12th tally on the year.
In the third, the clubs reverted into a defensive style of play with no further scoring.
This despite the Storm pushing the pace to tie it once more, including having a late power play and Hall on the bench for an extra skater, but could not solve Vale before time ran out.
With the win, Espanola raises their record to 15-8-0-1 and with the narrow setback, Iroquois Falls drops to 8-13-0-2.
