MATTAWA, ON – Alex Dajia had a pair of goals and an assist to help the Mattawa Blackhawks hold on to edge the Abitibi Eskimos 5-4 Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Mike Rodden Arena.
It took Mattawa just 53 seconds to open the scoring in this one as Jimmy Philbin beat newcomer Tyler Lesschaeve, who was making his Eskimos debut in net.
Abitibi would answer back at 13:10 of the opening frame as Brennan Roy notched his seventh of the season to tie things up heading into the second.
In the middle stanza, Abitibi took the lead near the seven-minute mark of the stanza courtesy of Kealey Cummings.
The Blackhawks drew even however before the session was complete thanks to a Dajia effort assisted by Philbin and Brett Ouderkirk.
Mattawa came out flying to start the third getting markers 26 seconds apart in the first minute of play from Kyle Baril and Dajia and saw Abitibi replace Lesschaeve in favour of Chet Tooker.
Tyler Broderson then made it 5-2 Hawks 9:14 into the period to seemingly take control.
The Eskimos battled back with a power play effort from Roy at 12:01 and a Cameron Ethington tally with 57 seconds to go take make it interesting, but Mattawa held on from there to pick up the win.
Joe Sheppard made 35 stops to record the victory for the Blackhawks.
Lesschaeve stopped 22 of 26 while Tooker allowed one against on nine attempts and suffered the loss in relief.
New Ownership
While the news has not been official, the Mattawa Blackhawks appear to be near an official announcement where TPA Sports out of Toronto is expected to be named the official new ownership group running the NOJHL Mattawa Blackhawks franchise.
Former owner and GM David Beauchamp is reportedly no longer involved with the organization.
Beauchamp relocated the financially struggling North Bay Jr. Trappers franchise to Mattawa in the off-season.
Former North Bay resident Patrick Geary is involved with TPA Sports and was at the game in Mattawa. He tweeted this after Saturday night's win.
Great day in mattawa at the @jrablackhawks game new era for the team and @TPA_Sports #tpa #blackhawks
— Patrick Geary (@Gears61) October 25, 2014
