Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – Riding the strength of an early three-goal outburst, the Hearst Lumberjacks went on to take down the Blind River Beavers 4-1 Saturday in a chippy Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League affair at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
It was the hometown Lumberjacks who began the night’s scoring two and a half minutes in when Terence Levasseur converted after Theo Bourdon-Lemoyne muscled his way into the Beavers zone and put a play out front that was put past goaltender Ian Blair.
More from Hearst later in the session saw them tack on two more to extend their lead after holding a significant edge in shots on goal.
Bruce Shier potted their second at 11:48 when he took a feed in the slot from Dylan Westmann in the corner and wired it into the left hand corner.
After that, Colton Loiselle fired a low attempt from the top of the right circle that leaked through the legs of Blair before sliding in.
A tighter-checking second stanza saw neither side convert offensively as the Lumberjacks carried their 3-0 lead into the intermission.
In the final frame, Hearst added some early insurance when Kai Winterscheid notched his first NOJHL goal by whipping in a loose puck from between the circles.
The Beavers eventually solved Lumberjacks goaltender Jack Helkie at 6:18 thanks to Alex Ivanov, who finished off his own rebound after wheeling into the Hearst end with pace.
That proved to be the evening’s final marker as the Jacks held firm defensively to collect the triumph at home.
With the outcome, Hearst improves to 11-5-2-0 on the season and in defeat Blind River drops to 8-8-1-0.
