Photos: Gary Rosevear
HEARST, Ont. – The visiting Soo Thunderbirds saw Jackson Mead’s second period goal hold up as the game-winner as part of a 4-2 victory over the Hearst Lumberjacks Saturday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
It was the visiting Thunderbirds who opened the scoring midway through the first frame.
On the marker, Sault Ste. Marie countered in transition in the neutral zone that led to a chance put in front of the crease that Sean Gresko steered in past Hearst netminder Jack Helkie, in collecting a tally in his NOJHL debut.
From there a couple of solid stops by Thunderbirds’ goalkeeper Cameron Boville kept his team in the lead through 20 minutes.
In the middle frame, the Soo went up by a pair while shorthanded as they broke up a play near the own blueline that allowed them to race in alone on a two-man break that was finished off by Makks Demidovich, with a quick give-and-go with teammate Mead.
Cutting into the deficit at 13:31, the Lumberjacks broke in on a two-on-one that saw Cameron Menard fire a pass over to Luc Warner, who shovelled it by Boville.
However, the T-Birds came right back on the next shift to restore their two-goal cushion with Mead pumping in a rebound from the left side off a slot shot courtesy of Landon Hill.
Moving to the third period, the scoreline remained the same until the late going, where with Helkie removed for an extra attacker, Kadin Bilajbegovic redirected a point shot from between the circles, courtesy of Julien Trudel.
Hearst then got their netminder out again to try and tie it and force overtime, but despite a valiant push, the Thunderbirds secured the road triumph with an empty net effort via Nicholas Carson in the final moments to secure the road result.
The same two teams meet again Sunday in Hearst at 4 p.m. and on flohockey.tv.
