ESPANOLA, Ont. – Two goals apiece from Spencer Horgan and Dario Sacino helped propel the Espanola Paper Kings to a 6-3 triumph over the French River Rapids Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at the Regional Recreation Complex.
French River took the lead near the 14-minute mark of the first period as Michael Christopoulos slammed in a loose puck off a rush into Espanola territory that was fired towards the net by Matthew Shulist driving down the left wing.
The Paper Kings came back to tie it a couple of shifts later compliments of Sacino’s 10th of the season as he hammered in a rebound from between the circles past a downed Brady Dyer, who had initially stopped an Owen Fergusson chance just moments before.
Into the second stanza, Espanola took the lead at 8:12 as Lucas Signoretti pumped a hard shot on net that was stopped, but the bouncing puck clipped off a Rapids’ defender and slid across the line for his league-leading 20th tally.
That also extended a Signoretti point streak to eight in succession.
Going up by a pair later in the frame, Horgan moved up from the right point and wired one home by Dyer to give him points in seven in a row.
Not done there, the Paper Kings notched another before the intermission off a dump-in that Dyer could not control and resulted in Sacino being left with plenty of net to slide in his second of the night.
Moving to the third period, Horgan notched another by cranking a one-timer from the left circle that flew into the back of the net during a power play.
Countering, French River’s Dominic Bzdyl worked his way behind the Espanola defence and went in alone on a breakaway where he went from right to left, and neatly put the puck back the other way for his sixth on the season.
However, Cayded Kowal answered for the Paper Kings with nine minutes to go by driving into the Rapids’ zone, then after firing a shot, kept going and lifted in the rebound.
The visitors did get one back before time expired on Cody Jessop’s first in the NOJHL as he came in on the left side and quickly blasted his chance by Marois, off a Tyson Carr.
With the victory, Espanola raised their record to 15-6-0-0.
In defeat, the Rapids dropped to 3-16-1-0 overall.
