FRENCH RIVER – Getting a goal in each period from Arthur Seamus McCown aided in the Iroquois Falls Storm easing past the French River Rapids 9-1 Friday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Noelville Arena.
The visiting Storm struck first to open the scoring, 3:45 into the contest, when McCown took a cross-crease pass from Felix Tremblay and steered it by Rapids’ netminder Gavin Zuccato.
Tacking on another, less than two minutes later, the surging Simon Lemieux tallied for a seventh-straight outing when he took a Jason Cyr feed and moved to his left before tucking in his NOJHL-leading 11th goal of the season.
While Lemieux extended his goal streak, Cyr also ran a point-run to seven as well.
French River made a goaltending change after that in favour of William Popik, but Iroquois Falls made it 3-0 at 12:46 as he darted down the right wing on an odd-man rush and wired a shot of the left post and in.
Tacking on a fourth in the session, Benjamin Mikan stuffed in a chance from a sharp angle on Zuccato who had re-entered the game after the third marker.
A fifth on the night early into the second stanza saw Emmett Schipprack hammer in a rebound during a five-on-three off a Lemieux attempt.
Blowing it open in the back half of the period, the Storm notched three more to take total control as Niko Lessard and Cyr, from close range as well as McCown all on a breakaway all converted.
French River eventually solved Caleb Shuker in the Iroquois Falls net with Tristan Lavoie spinning and sending in a low shot at 19:01 for his fourth of the season.
In the third, McCown capped it off with his third of the night as he found himself alone while his club was shorthanded and lifted in his opportunity for his initial NOJHL hat trick in rounding out the scoring.
