Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – The Hearst Lumberjacks saw Tyler Patterson provide a three-point night, which included the game-winning goal, as part of a 4-1 home ice victory over the Timmins Rock Thursday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division affair at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Clicking on the evening’s initial power play, Hearst captain Noah Janicki skated in to the right circle and ripped a shot upstairs past Timmins starter Patrick Boivin, four and a half minutes into the match-up.
The tally gives Janicki points in seven consecutive contests.
Adding another in the final moments of the first period, after killing off a penalty, Aiden Kalin picked off a play in the neutral zone and worked it to Patterson, who fired an attempt from the slot that clipped off the skate of a Rock defender and changed direction while knuckling past the outstretched pad of Boivin.
With the marker, Patterson reached the 20-goal-plateau on the season and notched the 60th of his NOJHL career.
Moving to the middle stanza, Timmins cut into the deficit in the latter stages of the frame after some nice puck movement and saw Mason Svarich snap a wrister from between the hash marks that hit off a Hearst player and altered course enough elude Hearst netminder Russ Decoste.
Picking up some insurance midway through the third, the Lumberjacks saw Patterson put a pass through the crease where a waiting Adam Shillinglaw had enough time to corral the puck and fire it into the open corner.
They then capped off the result with a late man advantage effort as Liam Boswell used teammate Jean-Pierre Audras as a screen, who leaped up in the air off a shot that found its way in from the right side to round out the scoring.
With the outcome, Hearst raises their record to 13-9-3-2, while in defeat the Rock fall to 16-9-2-0.
The two teams are right back it Friday with a 7:30 p.m. rematch at McIntyre Arena in Timmins and on FLOHockey.tv.
