Photos: Cassy Seguin
FRENCH RIVER – A multi-assist night by Dominic Bzdyl and goals from five different skaters sent the French River Rapids on their way to a 5-2 triumph over the Iroquois Falls Storm Friday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Noelville Arena.
Notching the night’s opening tally deep into the first period, Iroquois Falls got to the puck off a draw and saw Andre Cho put a short pass in front that was quickly hammered in by Max Jugnauth from the left of French River starter Elijah Grant at 16:52.
Tying it up on a late man advantage marker, with 30 seconds remaining in the frame, Pijus Zemaitis picked up his first NOJHL goal as he whipped one upstairs from between the hashmarks on Storm netminder Connor Hatfield.
Moving to the middle stanza, the Rapids took the lead four minutes in when Nolan Masson swiped the puck off a Storm defender then fed it across to Kai Clayton, who pumped in a one-timer.
The home side then went up by a pair at 8:37, on a delayed penalty, when David Ilkay put one towards the target from the left point that clipped off the stick of a defender enough to elude Hatfield.
French River kept it going when Jesse Lefebvre found himself free and front and quickly finishing off a Bzdyl pass.
Not done there, Matthew Stringer made it 5-1 in the final seconds of the session as he deposited a rebound off an Abram Snider attempt.
Those two tallies helped Lefebvre and Stringer extend consecutive game point streak to five each.
In the third, Ben Sherwin got one back for the guests at 7:13 as he banked one in off a French River player that eluded Grant.
That would be it offensively however as the Rapids moved to 7-19-1-0 overall with the win, and with the loss, the Storm dropped to 7-22-0-1.
