Looking to salvage something from their weekend and halt a three-game losing skid at the same time, the Rayside-Balfour Canadians were looking for a spark Sunday afternoon in Blind River.
Trailing the hometown Beavers 2-0 after 20 minutes of play, the Canadians exploded for three goals in a span of just under six minutes in the second half of the middle frame, receiving contributions from a variety of sources.
Kaleb Peldjak got the ball rolling, breaking the shutout at the 9:54 mark, with Evan Krassey (9th) and Chad Denault (17th) following suit not long thereafter.
Veteran blueliner Brett Whitehead drew assists on all three goals, and goaltender Owen Johansson slammed the door from that point, finishing with a total of 22 saves as the Canadians edged the Beavers 3-2.
Zak Lambreath and Dylan McMahon had staked Blind River to a 2-0 lead before Rayside-Balfour started to turn things around, firing 28 of their 35 shots on goaltender Aidan Doak over the course of the final two periods.
The contest proved to be something of a mirror image of the Saturday outing that pitted the Canadians against the Timmins Rock in Chelmsford. The teams were deadlocked at 2-2 entering the middle stanza, before the Rock added two more goals in the second and another pair in the third in posting a 6-2 win.
Six different players pulled the trigger for Timmins, with Dean Kiriacou, Jacob Shankar, Cole Gilligan, Stewart Parnell, Bain Cunningham and Wayne Mathieu all solving Rayside netminder Cameron Lamour.
Cayse Ton and Peldjak replied in a losing cause, as the Rock outshot the Canadians 42-40. The weekend started on the wrong foot for coach Dave Clancy and company, dropping a 3-1 decision on the road to the Elliot Lake Wildcats.
Brett Jacklin and Evan Spencer helped the homeside bolt from the blocks, giving the Cats an early 2-0 lead, before Nick Long (Elliot Lake) and Matt Neault (Rayside) traded goals in the second.
With seven games to play, the Canadians have fallen off the pace in the battle for second and third place in the NOJHL West Division. With a record of 24-20-3-1 (52 pts), Rayside-Balfour sits five points back of the Soo Eagles (27-22-2-1), albeit with four games in hand.
Blind River is comfortably slotted in to second place (29-18-3-0 = 61 pts), while the Soo Thunderbirds (35-11-1-1 = 72) have all but clinched first place outright. Post-season action in the NOJHL will begin on the weekend of March 10-12.
