Voodoos can’t end series in Hearst

Storming back from a two-goal deficit, the Hearst Lumberjacks rallied with six unanswered tallies to defeat the Powassan Voodoos 7-3 Friday in Game 5 action of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division semifinal at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.

The victory for Hearst keeps the best-of-seven series going as they now trail 3-2 and send it back to Powassan for a Game 6, Sunday at 7 p.m., and on HockeyTV.com, at the Sportsplex.

It was the visiting Voodoos who picked up the evening’s initial tally, just over four minutes in as Tucker Shields chipped a play ahead that sent Liam Serviss in alone on a shorthanded breakaway where he snapped a low blocker-side shot past Lumberjacks’ goaltender Kaleb Papineau.

Adding another midway through the first period, Powassan’s Serviss supplied his second of the frame, as he knocked in a backhand off a rebound from an Alex Little attempt from the left point.

Getting one back prior to the intermission, Hearst’s Tyler Patterson came out from behind the net on a power play and sent a sharp-angle chance from the right side that the Voodoos’ Kannon Flageolle could only get a piece of before it trickled over the goal line at 18:20.

Heading to the middle session, it was more from Serviss and he came down the ice in transition with his teammates and went top shelf with a rising backhander to complete a hat trick, that spelled the end of Papineau’s night in favour of back-up Ethan Dinsdale.

Pulling back to within one, the Lumberjacks knocked down a clearing attempt out of mid-air, which saw eventually Mason Svarich bury one from the left side at 13:54.

Patterson came close to tying it late in the second as he worked his way free, but was stymied on a Flageolle save.

He did however supply an equalizer, via the man advantage, with just over a minute to play in the period, after Emile Pichette put one high off the blocker and saw Patterson swoop in and even the score at 3-3 after two.

In the third, the Lumberjacks kept coming and took their first lead of the night after Emile Pichette whacked in a loose puck off a Liam Rampersad chance from the left side.

Not done there, the hosts notched a fourth straight marker at 2:54 with Rampersad going end-to-end with an impressive rush before completing it by tucking it past the pad of a sprawled Flageolle.

They then saw Jett Mintenko pick a play off then skate in where he outwaited the Powassan keeper and snapped it into the bottom corner.

Finishing off the outburst was Hearst’s Andrew Morton, who put one into an empty net with an unassisted effort, with three and a half minutes to go, to wrap-up the scoring.