Photos: Gary Rosevear
HEARST, Ont. – A couple of well-timed tallies after the Blind River Beavers had tied the score helped propel the Hearst Lumberjacks to a narrow 3-2 triumph Saturday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Going to work on the night’s first power play, the Lumberjacks opened the scoring six minutes into the contest when a Mathieu Comeau shot from the right circle clipped off the stick of teammate Chase Thompson and eluded Beavers’ netminder Mason Janicki.
Pulling even midway through the middle stanza, Blind River were quick out of their own zone in transition which led to an odd-man rush where Camden Cowan put a pass over to Caleb Walker that he roofed on Hearst starter Owen Bonthuis.
However, the home side came right back to retake the lead on the next shift when Royce Abraham notched his initial NOJHL goal by tapping in a backhand off a Ty McKay set-up from down low.
Capitalizing on an early turnover to begin the third period, Jonah McIndoo got a last touch on a number of chances the Beavers had to knot the affair at 2-2.
Once again though, Hearst had an immediate answer and went back on top once more when McKay snapped in his fifth of the campaign at 1:37.
Blind River got their goalie out in the late going to try and force overtime, but the Lumberjacks held firm defensively to secure the victory and improve to 4-1-0-0 on the season.
In defeat, the Beavers fell to 1-3-0-0.
