Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – Needing extra time to decide a winner of the Teleco Cup, Adam Shillinglaw’s man advantage marker 4:54 into overtime lifted the Hearst Lumberjacks to the title over the Kam River Fighting Walleye (SIJHL) Saturday afternoon at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
After Hearst took the fourth game 6-3 Saturday afternoon, to knot the series at two wins apiece, Shillinglaw buried the OT winner from the right circle, on a power play, to give his side the victory in the evenly-played overall affair.
In regulation of the final meeting, a fast-paced opening frame saw the Fighting Walleye open the scoring on a first-period penalty shot after the former Hearst forward Jett Mintenko was obstructed on a breakaway.
On his opportunity, Mintenko cruised in before making a nifty move and tucking the puck, with one hand, past the outstretched pad of Lumberjacks’ netminder Alex Boivin at 14:23.
Drawing even early in the middle session, Hearst clicked on the power play as defenceman Jean-Pierre Audras fired one from the left point that sailed through a maze in front and eluded a screened Kam River goaltender, Travis VanderZwaag.
Retaking the lead, a couple of shifts later, the Fighting Walleye countered in transition with Gage Hordy darting down the left wing and beat Boivin with a low short-side shot, along the ice.
Special teams then converted once more for the home side thanks to a Shillinglaw man advantage effort with a well-placed attempt from inside the blueline to knot the affair at 2-2.
The Lumberjacks then went in front after Bronson Babiak chased down a Shillinglaw clearing attempt and while driving down the left side, proceeded to rip his chance over the glove of VanderZwaag.
Another extra-man effort made it 4-2 Hearst when Damian Bourdon-Lemoyne jammed in a loose puck from in close, during a five-on-three.
Up a skater in the opening minute of the third, Mintenko notched his second of the contest by banging in a chance from the right of Boivin.
A fourth Lumberjacks goal on the power play put them back up by a pair thanks to Mathieu Comeau swatting a chance into the open net after the Kam River netminder got tangled up outside his crease.
Not done there, they potted another special teams effort as Bourdon-Lemoyne tipped in a Shillinglaw shot with five minutes to play to round out the scoring in regulation.
Hearst now gears up to commence their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League opener Friday as they travel to Greater Sudbury to take on the defending champion Cubs at 7:05 p.m.
As for Kam River, they’ll open up SIJHL play Sept. 14, at home, against the Dryden GM Ice Dogs at 7:05 p.m.
