BLIND RIVER – Capitalizing on their chances, the Soo Eagles from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., continued their solid play so far this season by defeating the Blind River Beavers 3-1 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Blind River Community Centre.
A fast-paced and tightly contested opening 20 minutes went without a goal as the two clubs hit the first intermission knotted at 0-0.
It was much the same for most of the middle stanza before the Eagles opened the scoring at 16:59 when Landon Stevens came out from behind the net and fired in a sharp-angle shot over the shoulder of Beavers’ goaltender Noah Tegelaar.
Moving to the third period, Sault Ste. Marie benefitted on a dump into Blind River territory that the home side’s netminder could not contain, which allowed Tyler Fortson to swoop in and neatly pick the corner, nearly two minutes in.
The Beavers did eventually dash the shutout bid of Marino Ramirez in the Soo net with 2:43 remaining in regulation when Clark Furman put a play towards the net from the left circle that clipped off the skate of a Soo player and trickled in.
Blind River then got Tegelaar out for an extra skater to try and tie it, but the Eagles secured the road victory with a tap in into the empty net to round out the scoring, off the stick of Zach Swietzer.
The outcome helps the Soo move to 12-3-0-1 on the campaign and saw the Beavers fall to 11-5-0-1.
As of Saturday, the Sault, Mich., squad had moved atop the NOJHL standings with 25 points, one point ahead of the Greater Sudbury Cubs and two points up on their cross-river rivals, the Sault, Ont., Thunderbirds.
The Beavers and the Espanola Paper Kings follow close behind with 22 points each.
– NOJHL Network Media and ElliotLakeToday staff