OLIVER PAIPOONGE, ON —
Red Lake’s McCall Nault opened the scoring on the powerplay, just a few minutes in to the game. Thomas Beaton replied for Kam River 2 minutes later, the rookie scoring his 1st junior goal on a partial breakaway to knot the game at 1.
The score remained tied until late in the 2nd period, when Carter Poddubny connected with a low shot from the slot to give the Walleye a 2 to 1 lead. With only 7 seconds remaining in the middle frame, Red Lake’s Seth Baptiste scored the equalizer, his 1st of the season, on a rebound.
Both teams battled hard in the 3rd, until Eron Mitchell went top shelf with under 4 minutes left to put the home team ahead 3-2. Just seconds later, Red Lake answered back when Mathias Sibilleau scored his 1st of the year, and the game was tied. Sibilleau potted the eventual game-winner just over a minute later, and McCall Nault added an empty netter to ice the game for Red Lake.
The teams matchup again Saturday afternoon for game 2 of the weekend series.
