HEARST, Ont. – A well-balanced attack saw the Hearst Lumberjacks get goals from six different skaters Saturday as they took down the Timmins Rock 6-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division meeting Saturday at Claude Larose Arena.
Hearst was hot to begin the game as they scored three times before the match-up was 10 minutes old to take early control.
Picking a quick power play, Dominic Dumas connected for the Lumberjacks just 31 seconds in to help send the hosts on their way.
They then went up by a pair a few shifts later with Jake Desando hitting the 20-goal plateau on the season.
Continuing to press, Hearst saw Olivier Cloutier-Faucher convert at 9:42 to make it a 3-0 score that saw the Rock replace goalkeeper Vance Meyer in favour of backup Julien Lefebvre.
Timmins got one back five minutes later with Zach Smith supplying his ninth with help from Riley Robitaille and Zachary Fortin.
The Rock then had a chance to pull back within one late in the frame when Derek Seguin was awarded a penalty shot, but he was thwarted by Hearst netminder Liam Oxner.
In the second stanza, Meyer returned to the Timmins net, but Spencer Silver made it 4-1 at 12:20 as his 19th overall added to the lead heading into the intermission.
Each club would score twice in the third period to round out the scoring with Seguin and Phil Caron bringing Timmins back to within one with still nine minutes remaining before Hearst regrouped and put the game away with tallies from Justin Miron and Sebastien Doucet to cap off the home ice triumph.
Oxner was credited with 29 saves, including the penalty shot stop, to record the win.
Meyer suffered the loss as he and Lefebvre faced a combined 33 attempts against in defeat.