Offensive attack lifts Hearst over Thunderbirds

Turning a two-goal deficit around at the flip of a switch, the Hearst Lumberjacks won the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League championship on Wednesday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

Trailing 2-0 with two minutes to go in the opening period, the Lumberjacks reeled off five consecutive goals en route to a 6-3 victory over the Soo Thunderbirds in game seven of their NOJHL championship series, giving the Lumberjacks a 4-3 series win.

The win means the Lumberjacks will represent the league at the Dudley Hewitt Cup, which begins on April 30 in Cochrane, Ont. and features the host Cochrane Crunch and the champions from the NOJHL, Ontario Junior League (Oakville Blades), and the Superior International League (Thunder Bay North Stars).

After Lucas Theriault and Nick Smith scored 1:16 apart in the opening period to give the Thunderbirds the lead, Jack Desando got Hearst on the board with his first of the playoffs with 1:46 to go in the period.

Alex Johnson proceeded to tie the game for the Lumberjacks 56 seconds into the second period and Hearst kept on coming.

Dawson Waddell gave Hearst the lead at 3:12 and Mac Johnson made it 4-2 at 4:24. George Young would increase the lead to three at 6:54.

When all was said and done, Hearst turned a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 le and the Thunderbirds couldn’t battle back.

Theriault would get his second of the night to make it 5-3 with a power play marker in the late stages of the second period but Bradley Golant sealed the win with 1:32 to go by scoring into an empty net.

Nic Tallarico made 24 saves for the Lumberjacks while his Thunderbirds counterpart, William Anderson, made 25.