IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – Aiden Beavan’s first goal of the season, coming four and a half minutes into overtime, was the difference as the Iroquois Falls Storm came back to clip the Hearst Lumberjacks 5-4 in an energy-filled Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter Saturday at Jus Jordan Arena.
The Storm also got off to a great start, connecting on an odd man chance 94 seconds into the proceedings, when Lucas Peever dropped a pass in the left circle for Landon Trethewey, who wired a shot past Lumberjacks’ netminder Alexandre Boivin.
Pulling even later in the period, Hearst’s Dylan Garvin lifted an attempt from the right side to the target that eluded Iroquois Falls starter Virgil Sausset-Plateaux.
A shorthanded effort late in the session saw Ty McKay dart up-ice and be left with plenty of space to supply his 13th of the season at 18:54 and put the guests up 2-1.
In the second stanza, the home side drew level a couple of minutes in thanks to Martin Brassard as he took a cross-ice feed from Jacob Demers in the slot and promptly whipped it in.
Continuing to go back and forth, the Lumberjacks’ Mathieu Comeau scored in a fifth straight outing and ran a point streak to 10 as he powered his way in along the right wing and deposited his 17th of the season.
Moving to the third, Garvin helped generate a fourth for his side that was eventually finished off by Keenan Quenneville at 2:12.
Battling back on an extended power play, the Storm struck twice to knot the affair and help send it to overtime.
Benjamin Coupal’s 11th made it 4-3 as he buried a loose puck off a Trethewey chance.
Peever then notched the equalizer as he collected the leftovers off a rush he started and snapped in a sharp-angle attempt from the right side.
In OT, Beavan completed the comeback when he jumped in and joined Peever on a two-on-one, and after being teed-up, ripped the game-winner over the blocker of Boivin to end it, much to the delight of the hometown faithful.
With the outcome, Iroquois Falls improves to 8-8-0-2, while with a point in defeat, first-place Hearst falls to 15-4-0-2.
