Photos: Rob Fera – Points North Media
SUDBURY, Ont. – The Hearst Lumberjacks built up a pair of three-tally leads then had to withstand a couple of comeback bids by the Greater Sudbury Cubs before eventually prevailing 6-5 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up Friday at Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
Despite being without their regular game jerseys for the contest, Hearst needed just over two minutes to commence the night’s scoring as Cole Stranathan found himself alone between the circles and whipped a Ty McKay feed past Greater Sudbury netminder Matthew Hahramian for a goal in his NOJHL debut.
Countering at 5:09 of the first period, the drew Cubs level when a funny hop off the glass on a clearing attempt found Daks Klinkhammer, who went in and roofed a backhand on Lumberjacks starter Alexandre Boivin.
Coming back to retake the lead, the visitors pressured a turnover that allowed McKay to go upstairs from close range.
Shortly after Boivin stopped Nate Lazerus on a breakaway, Hearst went up 3-1 as Jasha Bichin redirected in play put to the crease by Mikaleb Blier.
Coming out hard to begin the middle frame, the host banged in a pair before the session was four minutes old to even the score at 3-3.
Lucas Antonioni brought them to within one as the puck pinballed back to him off an initial attempt that he collected and wired in from the slot.
Greater Sudbury then tied it moments into a man advantage as Spencer Horgan took a nice spinning back pass from Kaedyn Long and proceeded to bury it from between the circles.
Regrouping, Hearst went back on top midway through the match-up as Theo Bourdon-Lemoyne picked up his first in the NOJHL by finishing off a goal-mouth scramble.
Moving to the final session, veteran Lumberjacks’ forward Mathieu Comeau made it 5-3 at 3:09 when he took a nice pass from in deep by Chase Thompson and wasted little time in wiring it past Vahramian from the left side.
Regaining their three-goal lead while on a power play, Cole Shepherdson drove to the net and lifted a backhand high over Mateo Beites who had entered the contest after the fifth Hearst marker.
Battling back to make it interesting, Klinkhammer notched two more in the late going to complete the hat trick as he was at first set-up by Long on the power play before taking a Noah Kohan pass in the slot and converting with Beites out for an extra attacker.
However, the Lumberjacks tightened up from there, including holding firm during a late Cubs man advantage, to close out the road victory.
