saultsports Photos: Cassey Sequin
FRENCH RIVER – The French River Rapids broke open a tie game with a trio of tallies in the third period to defeat the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-2 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Noelville Arena.
A good start saw the Rapids open the scoring going just over two minutes in when Jackson Doyle put a play in front, from in deep, to recently acquired Michael Leech, who whipped it upstairs on Gold Miners’ goaltender Mason Janicki.
On a two-man advantage to begin the second period, Dominic Bzydl wired a shot high through traffic in the first minute, moments after a tremendous point-blank save by Janicki.
Capitalizing on a power play to begin the third, Kirkland Lake got on the board at the 50-second mark with Trent Nobes notching his team-leading 13th tally as he worked his way to the slot and pumped an attempt over the blocker of the Rapids’ Zachary Burleigh.
Up another skater, the Gold Miners drew level a couple of minutes later thanks to Nobes once more, who buried a chance from the left circle.
Regaining the lead at 5:41 French River’s Ralph Coulis put his club back on top by cranking in a Doyle pass from between the circles.
Adding some insurance while shorthanded, Bzydl got a second chance on a two-on-one where he snagged the puck in close and lifted in his second of the evening.
The Rapids then iced the victory, which was the first in the NOJHL for Burleigh, when Doyle chipped in a set-up from Zachary Bartzis to round out the scoring.
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