saultsports Photos: Gary Rosevear
HEARST, Ont. – Receiving shutout goaltending from Alexandre Boivin and getting goals from six different players, including a pair while shorthanded, the Hearst Lumberjacks went on to blank the Timmins Rock 6-0 Saturday in the second game of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League semifinal match-up at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
This sees the series move to 2-0 in Hearst’s favour, heading into Game 3 of the best-of-seven affair, which goes Monday at 7 p.m. at McIntyre Arena in Timmins.
Notching his third man-down marker, in just four periods of play, Mathieu Comeau pumped in a rebound off the pad of Rock netminder Dryden Riley to finish off a Tyler Patterson attempt 16:45 into the opening frame.
Extending their edge nearly six minutes into the middle stanza, Hearst defenceman Brayden Hindman sent a lengthy pass ahead to Liam Boswell, who darted down the left side and cranked a blast past the glove of Riley.
Catching Timmins on an attempted change, the home side made it 3-0 as a trio of Lumberjacks skaters went in alone and after some quick give-and-go work, Aiden Kalin slammed one into the open side for his third of the playoffs.
Not done there, Hearst tacked on another before the intermission when a dump-in by Jean-Pierre Audras took a friendly bounce back into the slot that Chase Thompson collected and whipped it into the net at 14:24.
Capping it off in the final frame, the home side tacked on two more to win going away.
Their fifth goal came while down a man that saw Hugo Allard chip a play ahead and race up the ice before snapping a shot into the top right-hand corner for his initial postseason tally.
DonHeaven Veilleux then finished things off burying a nice feed from down low from Henry Ouellet to wrap-up the result in a penalty-filled third period.
Veilleux and Patterson both have at least one point so far in each of the Lumberjacks six playoff match-ups.
NOJHL semifinal
No. 2 Hearst Lumberjacks vs. 4 Timmins Rock
Lumberjacks lead best-of-seven series 2-0
Game 1: Lumberjacks 5 Rock 2
Game 2: Lumberjacks 6 Rock 0
Game 3: Monday, April 7 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 4: Tuesday, April 8 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 5*: Friday, April 11 @ Hearst 7 p.m. (Claude Larose Recreation Centre)
Game 6*: Monday, April 14 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 7*: Tuesday, April 15 @ Hearst 7 p.m. (Claude Larose Recreation Centre)
*-if necessary
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