Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – A solid offensive effort saw the Hearst Lumberjacks take down the Iroquois Falls Storm 8-3 Friday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Iroquois Falls did open the scoring three and a half minutes into the matchup on a two-on-one when Mathieu Ouellette fired a pass across to Jacob Demers on the left side that he ripped past Hearst starter Owen Bonthuis.
Answering a couple of shifts later, Henry Ouellet put the Lumberjacks on the board as he had two cracks in close after taking a sharp back pass from Mathieu Comeau and eventually lifted one by Storm netminder Alex Hall.
With the assist, Comeau has now collected at least one point in nine consecutive contests.
The home side then went in front midway through the first period thanks to Theo Bourdon-Lemoyne who darted down the left wing, and while using a defender as a screen, wired a wrister into the bottom right corner.
More from the Hearst rookie later in the session saw Bourdon-Lemoyne collect a drop pass from Ty Seymour, then wheel to his left and proceeded a roof a shot from a sharp angle to give him seven goals on the season.
Moving to the middle frame, the Lumberjacks extended their cushion 95 seconds in as Comeau whipped in a feed put his way in front from Ouellet to give him a league-best 16 goals on the season.
Another Hearst skater on a point streak, in defenceman William Pâquet, improved to a nine-game heater himself as he beat Virgil Sausset-Plateaux, who had entered in relief for the Storm to begin the period, through traffic.
Iroquois Falls got that back moments later compliments of another from Ouellette as his chance clipped off a stick and slid through the legs of Bonthuis.
A sixth on the night for the hosts saw Hunter Kelso notch his initial league tally by jamming away with bodies battling in front before eventually getting the puck across the goal line.
Then on a delayed penalty, Pâquet made a nice toe-drag then put a feed over to Mavrik Chan-Miguel who scored from close range.
Ty McKay added to the onslaught as he got the last touch that he chipped in midway through the final session.
The Storm did get one more to round out the evening’s scoring when Lucas Willoughby led an odd-man rush then dished it off to Bruce Grey who converted with a shot along the ice that got under Bonthuis to wrap things up.
The win raises the Lumberjacks record to 15-4-0-1 and the loss sees the Storm fall to 6-8-0-2.
