HEARST, Ont. – Recently arrived forward Blaise Arkle notched his first Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League hat trick Thursday and added an assist to help power the Hearst Lumberjacks to a convincing 7-2 victory over the visiting Soo Eagles Thursday at Claude Larose Arena.
Hearst came out flying in this one as they stormed out to a 4-0 lead after one period of play on tallies courtesy of Max Griffioen, Christian James-McDonald and Garrett Giertuga at even strength while Raphael Lecours clicked on the power play.
The Lumberjacks kept coming in the middle session as they tacked on two more with Arkle finding the back of the net twice.
An early third period man advantage helped Sault Ste. Marie get one back as Caleb Wood collected his team-leading 11th of the campaign at 2:04.
Arkle then capped off his four-point night with his third goal of the evening a couple shifts later to extend the home side’s cushion.
Kyle Quinn of the Eagles rounded out the night’s scoring at 16:01 to wrap things up.
James-McDonald, Max Johnson and Maxim Lacroix chipped in with two assists apiece to aid the Hearst offensive cause.
Tomi Gagnon made 33 saves to pick up the win for the Lumberjacks while Shane Brancato faced 34 shots in a losing cause for the Soo.
Photos courtesy of Highway Eleven &Co.
