FRENCH RIVER – After falling behind early, the Hearst Lumberjacks came back to collect 10 of the night’s final 13 tallies as they went on to swamp the French River Rapids 10-4 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Saturday at Noelville Arena.
The Rapids gained the early edge when Tristan Kitchen notched his team-leading seventh goal of the season just over five minutes in as he took a nice backhand pass from Michael Morascyzk in the slot and quickly whipped it past Lumberjacks’ netminder Owen Bonthuis.
Scoring for a third straight game, Hearst captain Mathieu Comeau tied it at 11:06 of the first as he worked a give-and-go in transition on a two-on-one with Chase Thompson and fired a shot that beat goalkeeper Matis Bueau-Morel.
Building on that, the guests took the lead five and a half minutes later as Henry Ouellet was neatly set-up by Thompson while driving down the left side.
Heading to the second stanza, it was all Hearst as they struck four times to take a 6-1 cushion into the intermission.
Thompson and Cole Miller both connected before the period was two minutes old to chase Bureau-Morel in favour of back-up Keiran Caughran.
The Thompson marker had him jam in a Ouellet pass with one hand on a two-on-one while Miller moved in from the point and took a down-low feed and cranked it in.
More from the Lumberjacks later in the session saw Ty McKay sent in alone on a lengthy stretch pass and put one upstairs at 16:36 before Ouellet scored again a minute later as he ripped in a play put his way by Thompson.
More from Thompson in the final frame, saw him lift in a backhand from close range at 2:34 to continue the onslaught.
French River did get one back after Jake Giacoppi collected the leftovers off a Joey Stiles blast up top for his first NOJHL goal.
Continuing to fill the net in the final nine minutes, Giacoppi and Jack Wilson connected for the Rapids while up a man and three more markers of the sticks of Hearst’s William Pâquet; Keenan Quenneville and Ouellet capped off the one-sided result.
