Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – Picking up multi-point performances from a large portion of their lineup, the Soo Thunderbirds used that balanced attack to dump the Hearst Lumberjacks 8-5 in a goal-filled Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Sunday at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
The Lumberjacks began the scoring four and a half minutes in when William Pâquet put a pass into the left circle that Mavrick Chan-Miguel promptly pumped past Thunderbirds’ netminder Ryan Hicks.
Coming back to tie it moments into a two-man advantage, Sault Ste. Marie’s Gianmarco Mastroianni corralled a draw won back to him at the point by Gavin Killoran and moved in before firing a shot through traffic that eluded William Stonehouse, who making his NOJHL debut in net for the Lumberjacks.
Still up a skater, the Soo took the lead at 13:36 when Killoran buried a cross-ice one-timer from Shea Chornley.
The T-Birds added another in the final minute of the first period off a turnover that allowed Killoran to set-up Landon Hill, who found the range on Stonehouse with a well-placed wrist shot into the bottom left corner.
In the second stanza, Hearst got back to within one at 15:22 after Theo Bourdon-Lemoyne’s long-range pass sent Ty McKay in alone on a breakaway where he made a nifty move to his left and roofed a backhand on Hicks.
Getting that back before the intermission, the Soo’s Deven Jones-McDonald pressured a turnover, then spun and fed an open Adam Pszeniczny, who clicked from close range
Putting it away early in the third session, the Thunderbirds connected twice to go up by four.
After Chornley swatted one in from a sharp angle at 1:36, Wyatt added some insurance a couple of shifts later by knocking in a rebound off a Rhys Bonvie shot.
Adding to their offensive outburst, Hill redirected in a Max DeCoff point blast for his second of the contest that eluded Owen Bonthuis, who had entered in relief for the home side.
The high-scoring affair then saw McKay get two more to register a hat trick and pull Hearst closer, beginning with him whipping in a pass put his way from Mathieu Comeau before doing likewise from the opposite corner during a power play.
However, the visitors countered less than a minute later with a James Legler empty net effort from centre ice.
The Lumberjacks did get another before time expired thanks to Hunter Kelso who converted through a crowd off a face-off win by Miguel.
With the outcome, the Soo improved to 16-7-1-1 overall and in defeat Hearst dropped to 16-6-0-2.
