Photos by: Gary Rosevear
HEARST, Ont. – The Hearst Lumberjacks built up an early lead, then had to withstand a pushback by the Espanola Paper Kings Sunday before eventually prevailing 6-5 in a back-and-forth Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Needing just three minutes to strike as many times and chase Espanola starter Jack Helkie, in favour of backup Logan Vale, Hearst were quick to build up an early 3-0 lead.
Henry Ouellet began the outburst on a man advantage 44 seconds in as he muscled his way to the net and jammed one past Helkie.
That helped him extend a point streak to seven in the process.
Mavrik Chan-Miguel then made it 2-0 at 2:05 by kicking the puck up with his skate at the top of the crease then whipping it in before Julien Trudel dispatched Helkie by cranking a blast from distance at the right point.
The Paper Kings got one back on the power play at 4:48 thanks to Cameron Menard collecting his team-leading 13th tally when he wired a shot from the left circle that bounced off Lumberjacks’ starter Alexandre Boivin and flipped into the net.
Answering hastily, Dylan Garvin made it 4-1 right after that as he pumped in a rebound off a Chase Thompson shot.
The high-scoring session saw Tyler Thompson bring the guests back to within two before the first intermission as he took a pass from Menard and was left with plenty of room to wire a rocket into the left corner.
In the second stanza, the Espanola power play got them closer once more at 7:21 as Carter Drigo got the last touch on a bouncing puck off a drive from teammate Luc Warner.
A third extra-man effort pulled the Paper Kings level thanks to Joseph Coates sizzling one over the blocker of Boivin at 17:34.
Countering rapidly, Mathieu Comeau put Hearst back on top just 27 seconds later as he accepted a Ouellet pass and promptly propelled it along the ice by Vale.
Continuing to trade tallies early in the third period, Ty McKay put the home side back up by a couple as he collected a Cole Shepherdson chance then took it to his right where he tucked in his 11th of the campaign at 2:14.
Matching that just over a minute later, Menard bagged his second of the contest, and 14th overall, as he benefitted by a turnover generated by Warren Farver and whistled it in from the slot.
Getting Vale out for an extra attacker in the late going, Espanola pushed to force overtime, but Hearst held on, including one final save by Boivin just before the buzzer sounded to give them the win.
With the outcome, the league-leading Lumberjacks improve to 14-3-0-1 while the Paper Kings dipped to 10-6-0-1.
