Liinamaa’s 6-point night leads Canadians past Express

ESPANOLA, Ont. – Kyle Liinamaa tallied three times and added three assists to help lead the Rayside-Balfour Canadians to a 10-2 triumph over the Espanola Express in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Saturday at the Regional Recreation Complex.

Evan Krassey got Rayside-Balfour going offensively four minutes into the match-up as he finished off a Matthew Neault feed.

Espanola came back to notch the equalizer, moments after a power play chance concluded, as Henry Laukkanen picked up his seventh on the year.

However the Canadians countered 72 seconds later with Christian Gaudreau adding his 15th.

The visitors kept it going and added another on the next shift with Neault also reaching the 15-goal plateau on the season.

Liinamaa then scored twice late in the period to give him goals in five consecutive outings as Rayside-Balfour took a 5-1 lead into the intermission.

Krassey and Jacob Partridge added to the onslaught in the second as the Canadians extended their cushion before Liinamaa completed his hat trick half way through the contest.

The Express got one back early in the third off the stick of Makenzie MacMillan, but Liinamaa finished off his big night by helping set-up Ethan Lavallee, who went on to notch the game’s final two markers to complete the one-sided decision.

Gaudreau added four assists to go with his tally to end up with a five-point evening.

Jean-Marc Brisson made 22 saves to record the win while Adam Scott faced 48 shots in defeat.