COCHRANE, Ont. – The Hearst Lumberjacks erupted nine goals in the final two periods as part on an eventual 10-2 triumph over the Cochrane Crunch in a one-sided Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter Saturday at Tim Horton Events Centre.
Going to the power play in the latter stages of the first period, Hearst took advantage when Emile Pichette put a cross-crease pass across to an unmarked Tyler Patterson, who was left with a tap-in on Cochrane starter Marcus Ouellet at 16:44.
In the second stanza, the Lumberjacks broke it open with a trio of tallies to go up by four before the session was five minutes in.
A wide-open Liam Rampersad found himself free in the slot where he made it 2-0 at 1:40 by wiring a shot over the glove of Ouellet.
Up a skater a couple of shifts later, Tyler Bortkiewicz was given the puck by Zachary Demers, then powered through the right circle and snapped one through the Crunch netminder.
Coming right back moments later, Jett Mintenko extended the lead to four as he steered in a feed across from Benjamin Thornley-Hill from close range.
Cochrane did get one back at 14:16, courtesy of Mathieu Roy, who took a pass from Andrew Scott on a two-man break and pumped one by Hearst goalkeeper Kaleb Papineau.
Countering with their third power play goal of the night, Riley Klugerman made it 5-1 by cutting through a couple of defenders and lifting one high by Ouellet.
Action in the final period saw the hosts get one back at 7:22 courtesy of Collin Lapointe, who banked one in off a Lumberjacks’ defender.
After that though, Hearst blew it open by striking five times in the final 12 minutes to win going away.
Andrew Morton began the outburst by roofing one short side from a sharp angle and then added another a couple of shifts later as he capped off a give-and-go with teammate Mason Svarich.
They then saw Pichette deposit a backhand while going right-to-left to make it 8-2.
Getting two more markers in the late going, Patterson finished off his second hat trick of the season, with one on a delayed penalty while in close, then added the night’s final tally, coming from between the hash marks, for his 20th goal of 2022-23.
The win sees Hearst raise their record to 28-9-2-0 while Cochrane dropped to 6-30-1-1.
