COCHRANE, Ont. – Zach Hayes had two goals and a pair of assists while teammates Kyle Herbster and Austin Whelan chipped in with three points apiece to help the Cochrane Crunch defeat the Hearst Lumberjacks 9-4 Sunday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at Tim Horton Event Centre.
Hayes was quick to get Cochrane going offensively as he opened the scoring 1:56 into the contest.
A Hearst man advantage opportunity helped them draw level at 11:28 as Dominik Lavergne picked up his sixth since joining the Lumberjacks earlier this month.
However the Crunch came right back 31 seconds later with Herbster collecting his 26th tally of the campaign to put the home side back in front after one period of play.
On the power play to begin the middle stanza, Cochrane captain Connor Lovie connected just 10 seconds into the stanza to put them up by two.
They then blew it open in the back half of the frame as they erupted for four goals to take control.
Hayes started the outburst at 12:05 followed by tallies 28 seconds apart from Laramie Kostelansky and Caleb Dolman before Herbster finished it off with a shorthanded effort at 19:40.
Both sides provided some more offensive production in the third with Whelan striking once shorthanded and another while up a man for the Crunch while Zack Dorval had two, including a power play effort for Hearst before Colin Boudreau rounded out the scoring with a later man advantage goal for the Lumberjacks.
Taylor Unruh made 27 saves to record the win for the Crunch.
Matt Kustra started for the Lumberjacks and suffered the loss allowing six against on 39 shots while Jonathan Passarelli handled 13 of 16 in over 25 minutes of relief.
With the result Cochrane improves to 25-14-2-1 while first-year Hearst falls to 17-19-2-0.
