COCHRANE – Cody Gratton tallied three times and added an assist to help lead the Cochrane Crunch to a 6-2 victory over the Blind River Beavers Thursday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Tim Horton Event Centre.
Cochrane opened the scoring 13:16 into the first as Jacob Erwin notched his fourth goal of the season as he finished off the work of Aviv Milner and Alex Goulet for the lone tally of the session.
The home side built their lead to 2-0 five minutes in the middle stanza as Gratton’s effort eluded Blind River starter Alex Chandler.
Special teams saw the Crunch make it 3-0 later in the stanza as Jason Berube connected via the power play at 11:29.
Cochrane continued to add to their cushion as Gratton’s second of the contest put his side up by four.
Blind River got themselves on the board late in the period thanks to newly acquired Alex Hulford’s man advantage effort at 18:04.
A Matt Neault marker on the power play brought the Beavers to within two five and half minutes into the third, but the Crunch put the game away thanks to Gratton finishing off his hat trick and Joseph Mavrin adding one with his side up a man in the latter stages to round out the evening’s scoring.
Josh Racek had three assists in aid the Crunch cause.
Shots on goal favoured the winning side 54-19 with Troy Paquette the triumph and Chandler suffering the loss.
Next on the NOJHL slate sees two games scheduled as Kirkland Lake hosts Blind River and Elliot Lake is at home to Sudbury in a pair of 7:30 p.m. starts.
