Photos: Bob Davies
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – Picking up multi-point efforts from the likes of Jackson Truchan, Kelsey Ouellet and Quinn Myles, the Soo Thunderbirds went on to defeat the visiting Hearst Lumberjacks 5-2 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Sunday at John Rhodes Community Centre.
A late Truchan marker, with 15 seconds remaining in the first period, put Sault Ste. Marie in front as he forced a turnover and skated in before beating Hearst starter Russ Decoste for an unassisted effort.
The Lumberjacks came back to draw even early in the middle stanza with Tyler Patterson snagging a loose puck and feeding Mathieu Comeau between the hash marks where he ripped a shot past Thunderbirds’ goalkeeper Kolton Bourret.
Answering with another go ahead goal, coming midway through the match-up, the Soo’s Ouellet darted out of his own zone and worked a crisp give-and-go with Truchan before ripping it by the blocker of Decoste.
The tally gives Ouellet goals in five straight outings as well as points in 15 in a row.
Adding to their lead at 12:49, Samuel Lake made a nice move and fired a shot that was stopped, but Silas Crawford was right there to hammer in the rebound.
Hearst made it a 3-2 game after 40 minutes when their captain Noah Janicki picked off a clearing attempt and eventually fired an attempt into the corner at 19:25.
Moving to the third, the Thunderbirds went back up by a pair after breaking out in transition with Jonathan Sonedecker leading an odd-man rush, then seeing Quinn Myles bank one in off of him for his eighth.
Hearst did get Decoste out in the late going for an extra skater, but the Soo put the game away when Jacob Smith slid a shot into the empty net to finalize the outcome.
With the win, the Thunderbirds raised their record to 36-13-4-1 while the Lumberjacks wrapped up a three-game weekend road swing with a setback in dropping to 33-16-4-2 overall.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
