Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – Piling up four power play goals, adding another while shorthanded, along with riding the first Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League shutout by Russ Decoste sent the Hearst Lumberjacks on their way to a 6-0 victory over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners in a chippy Sunday afternoon match-up at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
Converting on the day’s initial man advantage opportunity, Hearst opened the scoring 5:12 into the contest when Damien Bourdon-Lemoyne stuffed in a rebound, in close, off a blast from the right circle by Liam Boswell.
Tacking on another, via the power play, the Lumberjacks made it 2-0 later in the frame as they worked the puck around nicely and saw Mathieu Comeau put a feed across to Boswell on the right side, where he ripped it upstairs on Gold Miners’ netminder Graydon Mole.
Coming back to add one at even strength, DonHeaven Veilleux corralled a loose puck in his own end, then proceeded to wheel down the left wing, before driving in and snapping a shot over the shoulder of Mole to give him goals in four consecutive outings.
Hearst then collected a man-down marker in the middle stanza with Owen Hey whipping a sharp wrist shot, from the slot, into the top right-hand corner.
Up a skater after that, the guests scored once more with Adam Boucher putting one through a screen from up top.
Their next extra-man effort came in the back half of the period when Adam Shillinglaw sent a rising shot off the end glass where a fortuitous bounce saw it land back in front, then hit off a Kirkland Lake defender and flop into the net.
This resulted in back-up Caleb Shuker replacing Mole the rest of the way in relief for the home side.
Both Shuker and Decoste were crisp the remaining 28 minutes of the proceedings, as neither netminder allowed one to get past them before time expired.
The result moves the Lumberjacks’ record to 12-9-3-2, while with the loss, the Gold Miners fall to 6-16-3-1.
Both teams return to the ice Thursday night as Hearst hosts Timmins (7 p.m.) and Kirkland Lake travels to Greater Sudbury (7:05 p.m.), with each game being broadcast on FLOHockey.tv.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
