COCHRANE, Ont. – The Cochrane Crunch saw Nicholas Grandy collect a pair of tallies, including his second straight game-winning goal, to help send the Cochrane Crunch past the visiting Hearst Lumberjacks 5-1 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Sunday at Tim Horton Events Centre.
The match-up saw Cochrane skate out to a 2-1 lead after one period of play in this one.
Hearst’s David Gobeil opened the scoring nearly eight minutes into the contest as he picked up his 10th tally of the campaign.
Answering back, Cochrane got goals three minutes apart from Matthew Minichiello and Grandy to send the Crunch to the intermission up by one.
In the second stanza, Cochrane broke it open as they found the back of the net three times in the back half of the session.
Grandy’s second of the day and 14th overall made it 3-1 at 11:20 before Owen Perala and Hunter Buzzi converted 31 seconds apart late in the period to put the hosts up for four and chase Lumberjacks starter Liam Oxner in favour of back-up Noah Zeppa, who went the rest of the way.
In the third, there would be no further scoring as the Crunch closed out the contest to start 2020 at 2-0.
Minichiello and Perala added two assists each to go with their goals for a pair of three-point performances.
Cochrane netminder Zach Wickson made 24 stops to pick up the victory.
Oxner suffered the loss for Hearst, allowing five against on 28 chances while Zeppa saved all six shots he saw in relief.
