HEARST, Ont. – The Hearst Lumberjacks picked up a pair of goals from Spencer Silver to help his side outlast the Powassan Voodoos 7-5 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up Saturday at Claude Larose Arena in front of 784 spectators.
Hearst would open the night’s scoring midway through the first frame as Austin Anselmo picked up his sixth tally of the campaign as the home side carried a 1-0 lead into the middle session.
Powassan was quick to tie things up in that frame thanks to Shane Beaulieu’s 17th 33 seconds into the period.
The Lumberjacks answered back though by striking twice before the stanza was five minutes old as Silver and Dominik Lavergne put the home side up 3-1.
After Tomas Yachmenev brought the Voodoos back to within one at 8:43, Max Johnson countered for Hearst just over a minute later to make it 4-2.
Down a man the Lumberjacks still continued to click offensively as Zack Dorval struck shorthanded at 14:49 to put them up by three.
The goals kept coming with the Voodoos capitalizing at 16:45 on Harrison Israels’ 26th on a night that the rookie forward ran a point streak to six games.
Having a man advantage that carried over into the third helped Powassan inch ever closer with Israels striking once more as he made it 5-4 at 1:24.
The back and forth affair saw Hearst answer that a minute later thanks to Silver, but the guests were there once more as Nicolas Case continued the offensive barrage at 3:53.
Wade Auger iced it in the late going though as the Lumberjacks’ captain scored into an empty net in the final minute to secure the win.
Matt Kustra made 54 saves to record the victory for the Lumberjacks.
Julian Galloway started for Powassan and allowed five against on 35 attempts while Christian Cicigoi suffered the loss in relief giving up one on 17 chances in over 24 minutes of work.
Photos courtesy of Jimmy Cote Photography
