Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
ESPANOLA, Ont. – Roaring back from an early deficit, the French River Rapids roared back with four second periods goals to defeat the Elliot Lake Vikings 4-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League neutral site match-up Friday as the Espanola Regional Recreation Complex.
Setting an early tone, Elliot Lake bagged a couple of quick tallies to go up by a pair before the contest was two minutes in.
Noah Aboflan notched the first one at the 39-second mark getting the puck at the point and moving into the high slot where he wired a shot high over the glove of French River starter Elijah Grant.
Coming right back, the Vikings tacked on another with Max Ciesielski pumping in a one-timer from nearly the same spot as the Aboflan effort.
Aboflan then struck shorthanded half-way through the first as he raced in alone on a breakaway where he made a couple of quick moves before placing his chance past the pad of Grant into the left corner.
The Rapids got one back, on a man advantage, early in the second with Nolan Masson cranking in a one-timer from the right circle, off a nice feed across by teammate Daniil Grishachev.
Not done there, they tacked on three more to go in front after 40 minutes.
Tyler Trealout made 3-2 at 7:56 as he pumped one in from the left circle past a partially screened Matthew Vahramian in the Elliot Lake net.
They then drew level a couple of shifts later courtesy of Jesse Lefebvre, who was spotted alone in front by Matthew Shulist, then quickly wired a shot in the bottom left corner.
Completing their second period surge, Shulist added another assist by spinning along the end boards and firing a feed in front to Matthew Stringer, who put it upstairs over the blocker of Vanramian at 18:25.
Neither side would connect in a scoreless final frame, with French River winning for the third time in four games to improve to 6-18-1-0 overall.
In defeat Elliot Lake fell to 4-13-1-3.
