HEARST, Ont. – Olivier Cloutier-Faucher notched the lone goal in the shootout as the Hearst Lumberjacks went on to defeat the visiting Cochrane Crunch 6-5 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League preseason affair Sunday at Claude Larose Arena.
Each side tallied twice in the first period with Cloutier-Faucher and Mason Bazaluk connecting for Hearst in the stanza while Sebastien Ouimet and Simon Levac replied for Cochrane.
The two teams then added marker apiece in the middle frame to hit the second intermission knotted at 3-3 on man advantage efforts from Levac of the Crunch and the Lumbersjacks’ Cloutier-Faucher.
After Ryan Hunter put Cochrane in front on the third, the back-and forth meeting saw Alex Thompson level the proceedings for the hosts at 7:33.
Ouiment gave the guests the lead once more only to see David Gobeil force overtime with 2:12 to go.
After a scoreless five-minute OT, Cloutier-Faucher collected the decider in extra shots to give the Lumberjacks the win.
Liam Oxner faced 30 shots to record the victory, plus all three attempts he saw in the shootout.
Crunch netminder Julien Lefebvre started and played half the game, making 27 saves while Michael Nickolau had 18 stops in relief.
