COCHRANE, Ont. – Hearst Lumberjacks forward Raphael Lajeunesse scored twice in the game’s opening five minutes, including the eventual winner, to help send his squad to a 5-1 win over the Cochrane Crunch Thursday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Tim Horton Events Centre.
Lajeunesse got his first marker at 3:59 by coming out from the left side where he made a nice move into the slot and whistled a wrist shot into the top corner to give the guests the lead.
He then added another just 18 seconds later by spinning into the right circle and proceeded to wire one past Cochrane netminder Michael Nickolau.
Moving to the middle frame, Hearst tacked on two more to go up by four.
Some nice puck movement saw the Lumberjacks add their third of the evening with Mason Bazaluk finishing off a goal-mouth scramble from in close.
Hearst’s fourth marker came off a nice pass from the slot by Riley Klugerman that left Brayden Palfi with a tap in from the right of the crease.
Down a skater late in the second, Matteo Peca of the Crunch clicked shorthanded as he took a Liam Boswell pass off a two-on-one and proceeded to lift a back hand over the pad of Liam Oxner at 17:58.
A man-down in the late going, Ryan Glazer of the Lumberjacks dashed down the ice and put one into an empty net to cap off the road win for his club.
Oxner played the first two periods for Hearst and got the win making 18 saves on 19 chances while Alexandre Boivin stopped all six chances he faced in 20 minutes of relief.
As for Nickolau he saw 63 pucks put his way in defeat, including 29 in the final frame alone.
