Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – A Tyler Patterson tally, early in the third period, held up as the game-winner Friday as the Hearst Lumberjacks held off the Timmins Rock 3-2 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
A hard-fought opening 20 minutes saw neither side convert offensively as the two teams hit the first intermission still knotted at 0-0.
In the second period, Timmins opened the scoring six minutes into the session as Ryan Armitage went to the net and chipped in a loose puck laying in front of Hearst netminder Tristan Boileau, off a Brant Romaniuk attempt, for his fourth goal of the season.
Countering, the Lumberjacks tallied twice to take a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Liam Boswell tied it on the power play midway through the session as he jammed in a rebound off a Noah Janicki attempt from the left point.
Two minutes later, Maddoc Newton put Hearst in front and he quickly snapped in a pass from behind the net from Adam Shillinglaw, that had clipped off a Rock defender and lay there for him to fire in.
The hosts went up 3-1 early in the third when Jean-Pierre Audras sent a sharp feed across to Patterson, who controlled the bouncing puck, then blasted it in from a sharp angle past a downed Patrick Boivin in the Timmins net, for his 15th of the season.
Rock captain Felix Cadieux-Fredette then pulled his side back to within one as he skated into the Lumberjacks zone on a power play and fired one through Boileau from the left side for his first of the season.
Tightening up defensively from there, no further goals would be supplied as Hearst held on for the home ice win on front of nearly 650 fans.
With the result, Hearst moves to 9-8-3-1 on the year while Timmins falls to 13-8-2-0.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
