FRENCH RIVER – Blaise Arkle tallied twice while Bradley Golant dished out three helpers as the Hearst Lumberjacks went on to defeat the French River Rapids 6-1 Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up in front of 400 fans at Noelville Arena.
The first frame was without a goal until late in the period when Hearst connected on the power play at 19:51 as Arkle collected his 14th of 2018-19.
Action in the second stanza saw the Lumberjacks convert twice during back-to-back power play chances with Alec Johnson and J.J. Berdal connecting 61 seconds apart to put the visitors up by three.
French River did get one back before the frame was done as Levi Siau and Philippe Daoust combined to set-up Ryan Smith for his 11th of the season at 18:02.
Heading to the final frame Arkle added his second of the night and 15th overall to put Hearst up by three.
They then added two more in the late going off the sticks of Jake Desando, his 20th, and Cameron Clark to wrap things up.
Nicholas Tallarico made 34 saves to record the win for Hearst while Niko Manetas faced 41 attempts in defeat for French River.
Photos courtesy of Dal Photography