Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – The surging Hearst Lumberjacks got a hat trick from Chase Thompson, along with other big nights offensively from Mathieu Comeau and Henry Ouellet, to win their seventh Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game in a row Friday as they dumped the Timmins Rock 7-3 at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Converting on the night’s first power play, Ouellet gave Hearst the lead nearly three minutes into the matchup as he took a sharp feed from Comeau and cranked a one-timer from the right circle that flew by Timmins’ netminder Frédéric Cousineau.
The assist gives Comeau points in six straight games.
Extending their lead at 15:59, Hugo Allard made it 2-0 Lumberjacks when he jumped into the slot with speed and ripped in a big rebound for his first of the season.
Another extra-man effort put the home side up by three 3:40 into the middle frame as Comeau took a nifty spinning back pass down low by Thompson and quickly wired it by Cousineau from a sharp angle on the left side.
With points in seven straight, Thompson made it 4-0 as he spun and put a shot past a screened Rock netminder, who had to deal with a Hearst player crowding his crease.
Timmins eventually solved the Lumberjacks’ Alexandre Boivin at 14:33 thanks to Brant Romaniuk who worked a mini give-and-go with defenceman Braedyn Cyr and buried his fifth of the season from the slot and extend a point streak to six.
In the final frame, Hearst clicked on the power play once more as Thompson pumped in a nice feed across from Comeau at 2:49.
A fourth extra-man effort helped put the game out of reach when Ouellet quickly hammered in another Comeau pass to put the hosts up by five.
Nicholas Schwertner’s first in the NOJHL saw him knock down a pass for Timmins that went in front of the net that he would bat in to make it a 6-2 game with 11 minutes left.
The Rock then got another one back off the stick of Evan Katic as he finished off the work of Matthew Kim who drove hard to the net where the puck laying in the crease was stuffed in by the rookie forward.
Wrapping up the scoring in the late going, Thompson put the finishing touches on his hat trick with a fifth Lumberjacks tally on the power play.
On the tally he finalized a nice passing play with Comeau and Julien Trudel with 2:08 to go and round out the scoring.
