NEWS RELEASE
NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
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Jean-Pierre Audras notched his first two Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League goals Saturday to help send the Hearst Lumberjacks on their way to a 6-2 decision over the Blind River Beavers in a match-up held at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
Blind River did begin the scoring near the four-minute mark of the first period when Evan Fraccaro worked the puck free in the neutral zone, then skated along the left side boards before firing a feed in front that was steered in by Clark Furman past Hearst starter Russ Decoste.
Countering with an equalizer, the Lumberjacks drew level midway through the frame when William Pâquet took a play to the net that was initially stopped by Beavers’ goaltender Iain Wintle, but Audras was right there to swoop in and bury the rebound for his initial NOJHL tally.
Audras then popped in his second league marker later in the session as he jammed in a quick give-and-go from close range with Alex McDonald that just had enough on it to trickle across the goal line.
In the middle session, Hearst went up by a pair at 5:48 thanks to Mathieu Comeau, who deflected in a nice slap-pass while parked in front, from defenceman Adam Shillinglaw.
Adding another before the second intermission, Decoste and Jason Towindo combined in transition to send Aiden Kallin flying down the left wing where he cut in and chipped his chance over the blocker of Wintle while driving through the crease.
The Lumberjacks kept coming early in the third after winning a draw and saw Liam Boswell set-up Towindo in the slot where he quickly hammered in his fifth of the season at 1:55.
Getting one back while shorthanded, Tyler Vorstadt did the work to set-up Jakob Kovacs alone on front where he raised his chance over the blocker of Decoste at 5:32.
Hearst responded with a man advantage marker at 12:23 to help seal the victory as Tyler Patterson sent a crisp cross-crease feed right to Josh Russell, who guided in his fourth of the campaign.
The outcome sees the Lumberjacks move to 6-7-0-1 on the season while the Beavers fell to 10-4-0-0.
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