Photos: Turnbull’s Northern Photography
IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – Riding the strength of a Cameron Menard hat trick, the Espanola Paper Kings went on to defeat the Iroquois Falls Storm 6-3 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Jus Jordan Arena.
A great start for the Paper Kings saw them tally twice before the contest was six minutes old.
Their initial effort came off a draw that led to Jack Anderson roofing a shot from between the circles in beating Storm starter Justin Sullivan from upstairs.
Espanola then notched another at 5:27, with Menard stuffing in a rebound off a Luke Hill blast, who had moved in from the left point.
Regrouping, Iroquois Falls got one back on the next shift thanks to Lucas Peever finishing off a Landon Trethewey feed from behind the net that got by netminder Jack Helkie.
The visitors answered that following a couple of in-close chances off a turnover that was eventually fired in by Carter Drigo on a sprawling Sullivan.
Heading into the middle frame, Espanola went up by three after chasing down his own dump in, Jackson Drigo fired a feed in front to Menard who lifted in his second of the night, by putting it upstairs from close range.
Menard then hit his hat trick at 16:27 as he controlled a bouncing puck between the circles and wired it under the glove of Sullivan.
Iroquois Falls got one back with five minutes to go as Jordan Mayo chipped one over a sprawling Helkie.
However, the Paper Kings’ Nathan Marincola helped secure the road result as he spun in the right circle and snapped a short side shot into the top right-hand corner with just over two and a half minutes to play.
Ben Sherwin did notch one final marker for the Storm before time expired as he finished off an Isaiah Felix drop pass while driving down the slot.
The win for Espanola boosts their overall record to 4-5-1-0 while in defeat Iroquois Falls dipped to 4-5-0-0.
