ELLIOT LAKE – The Elliot Lake Wildcats jumped out to an early three-goal lead and never looked back as they blasted the Blind River Beavers 8-1 Friday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League competition at Centennial Arena.
Elliot Lake chased Blind River starter Nick Kazmeirczak by the six-minute mark of the opening session on markers by Nathan Campbell, Phill Clouthier and Jason Bednarski.
After Zach Mills came in for a relief stint for the Beavers, it settled his club down and Dallas Miller would put his side on the board at 15:47.
However just 12 seconds later Liam Blais countered for the Wildcats to put them up 4-1 through 20 minutes.
Elliot Lake then extended their lead in the second getting a pair of tallies from Spencer MacLean to make it 6-1.
The Wildcats then put the game away in the final frame as Sam Gagnon and Blais, who struck shorthanded, rounded out the scoring.
Allan Menary made 16 saves to post the victory for Elliot Lake as they improved to 2-1 early in team history.
The Wildcats fired 41 shots on the Blind River as the Beavers slipped to 0-3 on the season.
NOJHL play resumes Saturday with four games as Blind River is at home to Powassan, Cochrane visits Abitibi, Sault Ste. Marie hosts Sudbury and Mattawa travels to Kirkland Lake.
All four contests get underway at 7:30 p.m.
