Photos: Gary Rosevear
HEARST, Ont. – Picking up multi-point nights from Zachary Demers and Riley Klugerman, for a second consecutive evening, the Hearst Lumberjacks knocked down the Soo Thunderbirds 7-3 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Friday at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Like Thursday’s match-up, Sault Ste. Marie got on the board first as Dharan Cap connected at 6:50 of the opening frame when he and Youssef Chaouachi darted out of their own zone on a two-man break and saw his teammate send a cross-crease feed that was buried past Hearst netminder Matteo Gennaro.
Answering back, the home side tied it just over two minutes later thanks to Klugerman as he drove down the left wing boards, and around the net, before stuffing in a wrap around on Thunderbirds goaltender Kolton Bourret.
The Lumberjacks then took the lead prior to the intermission compliments of Demers, who was there to hammer in a rebound from the right side off an Adam Shillinglaw attempt.
Hearst kept coming in the middle stanza as they tacked on a trio of tallies to go up 5-1 after 40 minutes.
Mason Bazaluk began the offensive outburst at 2:41 as he managed to put one through the Soo goalkeeper from the right of the crease.
The league-leading Lumberjacks’ power play then went to work 10 minutes later and saw Klugerman score for the seventh time in his past three outings as he finished off a Bazaluk feed with a cross-ice one-timer from the left circle.
Capping off the session with two seconds remaining, Brandan Tronchin notched his initial NOJHL tally, as he ripped one short side off an odd-man rush.
Zachary Reddy, entered to take over for Bourret to begin the third, but he was greeted by another from Demers at 5:05 where he came in alone on a breakaway, and while moving his left, lifted the puck back in the opposite direction for his sixth overall.
Special teams helped the Soo get a couple back when Ethan Raduy finished one off from between the hash marks while up two skaters before Kolby Fellinger scored 59 seconds later as he wristed one through a partial screen from the left point.
Hearst however put the game away, via the power play, at 11:29 to round out the scoring thanks to Tyler Patterson as slammed in a loose puck off another Shillinglaw effort.
The win sees the Lumberjacks improve to 4-2 on the season while the Thunderbirds fell to 2-4 overall.
