HEARST, Ont. – Getting a goal in each period was enough for the Hearst Lumberjacks as they went out to defeat the Timmins Rock 3-1 Sunday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
After having a nine-game point streak snapped on Friday, the Rock’s Josh Dickson began another run by going upstairs of Hearst starter Liam Oxner at 4:19 as he clicked from the left side.
Countering, the Lumberjacks drew even at the seven-minute mark when Quinton Hill forced a turnover then powered his way down the right wing, before firing a pass in front to a hard-charging Zachary Demers, who jammed in his fifth goal of the campaign past Timmins netminder Gavin McCarthy, who had no chance on the play.
The score stayed 1-1 into the middle period where at the tail-end of a two-man advantage, Hearst took the lead thanks to Raphael Lajeunesse finishing off a nice three-way passing play from the slot that saw Demers and Carson Cox collect the assists.
From there the home side carried their slim lead to the second intermission.
In the third, speedy Jordyn Mughal added some insurance at 7:11 as he won a race down the ice by splitting a pair of Rock defenders and coming in on net where he quickly snapped a shot into the top right hand corner to cap off the scoring in the contest.
Timmins did pull their goalkeeper late for an extra skater, but could not solve Oxner before time expired.
A solid 34-save effort helped Oxner record the victory while McCarthy saw 27 attempts fired his way in defeat.
The clubs are currently scheduled to meet once more prior to the holiday break as they square off Tuesday in an 8 p.m. start at McIntyre Arena and on HockeyTV.com.
Game Photos: Paul Gagnon
