saultsports Photos: Cassy Séguin
FRENCH RIVER – Providing some of their best play of the season down the stretch, the Iroquois Falls Storm capped off a solid 6-0-1-0 run in defeating the French River Rapids 9-2 Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Noelville Arena.
The victory secures the eighth and final NOJHL playoff spot for the Storm and gets them a date with the No. 1 seeded Greater Sudbury Cubs in a best-of-seven quarter-final series, which begins next week.
Some early pressure by Iroquois Falls generated the night’s initial tally, just over two minutes in, when Jack Jarvis pumped in a second chance from between the circles past French River netminder Zachary Burleigh for his 24th marker of the season.
Notching another at 8:49, the Storm’s Lucas Willoughby took a pass from Justin Doak on the right side and fired a shot through traffic past a screened Rapids’ goalkeeper.
That also saw the home side make a change in net as Brock Grein entered in relief.
Busting it open quickly in the middle stanza, the visitors banged in a trio of tallies in a 63-second span to push ahead by five.
The outburst began at 1:08 of the session when Emrick Paradis finished off a nice cross-ice feed from Andre Cho.
Right after that, Iroquois Falls broke out in numbers which led to Lucas Peever making a crafty play across to Landon Trethewey, who promptly slammed it in.
Not done there, another odd-man rush led to Jarvis teeing up Jordan Mayo in the slot, who quickly connected.
After that, Burleigh re-entered the match-up for the Rapids.
French River did get one back at 8:45 when Michael Christopoulos led a rush down the right wing and while driving to the net flipped a feed into the crease that was batted in by Jackson Doyle.
Regrouping, the Storm answered back with a couple more markers to bust it open.
Mayo’s second of the evening, and 24th overall, made it 6-1 as he scored on a power play by sliding in the back door and completing a crisp set-up through the crease from Trethewey.
Capping off the five-goal frame, Carter Jamieson took a saucer pass from Mayo while driving down the slot and lifted his opportunity over a downed Burleigh.
With Grein back in net for the final period, an eighth on the night for the guests came during a power play and saw Andre Cho credited with a tip in off a Paradis attempt from up top.
Adding to the onslaught, defenceman Thomas Hudon whipped one in from the left point for his second of the season.
Capitalizing on a man advantage midway through the third, the Rapids’ Dominic Bzdyl collected a nice pass in deep from Daniil Grishachev and wired in a career single-season best 19th tally in beating the Storm’s Maverick Fletcher, in what proved to be the last goal of the night.
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