Rayside-Balfour skates past Espanola

CHELMSFORD, Ont. – The Rayside-Balfour Canadians set the tone early by grabbing a 3-0 lead before the game was six minutes old before going on to an eventual 5-1 triumph over the Espanola Express Thursday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Chelmsford Arena.

Taylor Woolcott got the Canadians going 64 seconds in before teammate Shane Donovan upped the lead to two at 3:33.

It was more home side just over two minutes later when Evan Krassey picked up his 11th tally of the season.

Espanola did get one back at 8:31 as Joel Grandbois scored for a fifth time on the campaign while Makenzie MacMillan and Connor Tessier picked up assists on the play.

Moving on to the middle frame, Rayside-Balfour extended their cushion near the seven-minute mark of the session thanks to Darcy Winkler who added his sixth overall to make it 4-1.

Gabriel Rheault then rounded out the night’s scoring with the lone goal of the third period, which came at 4:51.

Ethan Lavallee doled out two assists to aid the Canadians offensively.

Rayside-Balfour outshot the Express 44-26 on the night with Matty Hayhew picking up the win while Jacob Hutching suffered the setback.

Photo courtesy of Rob and Caleigh Fera:  www.sudburylight.ca