HEARST, Ont. – Alex Morawski notched a hat trick and set-up another goal while Ryan Mooney and Caleb Dolman both tallied once and doled out three assists as the Cochrane Crunch defeated the Hearst Lumberjacks 7-4 in front of over 500 fans Wednesday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League exhibition match-up at Claude Larose Arena.
Morawski opened the scoring just over two minutes into the contest before Hearst’s Sam Gaudreau drew his club level with 6:08 left in the first.
However, Morawski scored again just 27 seconds later to put Cochrane up 2-1 after one.
Special teams helped the Lumberjacks tie it in the second on a Cameron Conover power play marker.
The Crunch regained the lead though with a man advantage effort of their own off the stick of Dolman before Zach Hayes put one in at even strength in the final seconds of the stanza.
Hearst came out strong to begin the third getting goals in rapid succession to knot the affair at 4-4 thanks to Raphael Lecours and Davely Fortin.
Regrouping, Cochrane picked up the eventual game-winner from Morawski with eight and a half minutes remaining in regulation.
He then set-up Jacob Stos for some insurance at 15:39 before Mooney iced it late with an empty netter to round out the night’s scoring.
The Lumberjacks held the edge in shots on goal by a 44-36 count.
Justin Vertesi picked up the win in net for Cochrane in third period relief while Nic Tallarino suffered the setback while stopping 17 of 20 in 30 minutes of work for Hearst .
Photos courtesy of Highway 11
