BLIND RIVER – Cody Gratton notched his second consecutive hat trick to help propel the Cochrane Crunch past the Blind River Beavers 4-1 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Blind River Community Centre.
Gratton bagged his 30th goal of the season to give the visitors the lead after one period of play as he found the mark with seven minutes remaining in the stanza.
After a scoreless middle frame, Ian Skinner extended the Crunch lead 5:51 into the third.
Gratton then added one on the power play with 8:57 to go to put Cochrane up by three.
Blind River dashed Ben Auger’s shutout bid with three and a half minutes to play courtesy of a Regan Yew effort.
The Crunch iced in the final seconds as Gratton capped off another three-goal night as he scored shorthanded into an empty net to register his league-leading 32 goal of the season to round out the scoring.
Auger finished with 29 saves to record the win for Cochrane while Daniel Potter made 43 stops in defeat for the Beavers.
