ESPANOLA, Ont. – Rebounding from a one-sided setback Saturday, the Hearst Lumberjacks answered back with a 5-2 win over the Espanola Paper Kings Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at the Regional Recreation Complex.
Needing less than two minutes to score first, Hearst won a draw back to Dylan Garvin at the left point, who unleashed a shot on net that was stopped by Espanola starter Jack Helkie, but Ty Seymour was right there to swat in the rebound for his initial NOJHL goal.
Going up by a pair in the back half of the opening frame, Ty McKay struck shorthanded as he raced in on a breakaway and while driving to net from the right wing, cut to his left and roofed a nifty backhand high over Helkie.
Hearst kept it going in the middle frame, connecting just after a man advantage they were on had expired that saw Theo Bourdon-Lemoyne convert by coming out from behind the net and banking one in from a sharp angle.
The Paper Kings eventually solved Lumberjacks’ starter Alexandre Boivin at 15:13 of the second, when William Shaw kept a play in the Hearst zone that led to Joseph Coates setting up Cameron Menard who snapped in his third goal, early in the season.
Picking up some insurance three minutes into third, the Jacks’ Chase Thompson flew down the right wing and after moving to mid-ice buried one after a pump-fake to end Helkie’s day in favour of Espanola back-up Logan Vale.
A late-game fracas resulted in multiple players on both sides being ejected before Bourdon-Lemoyne with a shorthanded empty-netter and the Paper Kings’ Lucas Ducas, with a man advantage effort in the final minute, capped off the scoring.
