ESPANOLA, Ont. – Logan Vale did his part defensively for his first Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League shutout, while Carter Drigo continued his torrid scoring pace as the Espanola Paper Kings blasted the Blind River Beavers 9-0, in a penalty-infested affair Friday evening at the Regional Recreation Complex.
Owen Smith gave the Paper Kings an early edge as he pumped in a back pass put out from behind the net from Jason Galante.
Another for Espanola saw them convert on the power play just over eight minutes in to make it 2-0 as Reid de Bokx took a draw won back to him by Smith on the left side that he lifted to the net and clipped off a defender in eluding Beavers’ netminder Justin Sullivan.
The assist for Smith gives him 50 points on the season, which leads all NOJHL rookies.
Up a skater once more, the Paper Kings picked up a third goal in the session when Joseph Coates moved his way out from the corner and after a couple of quick dekes, wired in his 22nd of the campaign at 14:30.
In the second stanza, Espanola’s special teams went to work again as a red-hot Drigo scored on the man advantage early on as he waited patiently while open on the right side and connected when given the chance.
More from the surging forward saw him run his overall tally-total to 29 on the season while going to the net with Graydon Guthrie and finishing off a backhand in close.
A fourth extra-man effort put the Paper Kings ahead by a half-dozen when defenceman Carter Makasoff whipped one in through traffic from just inside the blueline before Callum Millar, right after that, put one into the net from between the circles to continue the romp.
Their fifth via the power play, came early in the third as Levi Lux got a piece of a de Bokx chance from up high.
Continuing his torrid offensive pace, Drigo completed his third hat trick in as many outings, and fourth in his past five games, to cap off the blowout at 13:53 by converting for a 30th time overall.
The one-sided contest moves the Paper Kings record to 24-17-1-3 and the loss sees the Beavers fall to 14-28-0-4.
