HEARST, Ont. – Daniel Fisher tallied twice, including the notching the eventual game-winner at 19:59 of the second period, as the Hearst Lumberjacks went on to skate past the Timmins Rock 5-3 Sunday in Game 5 of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division semifinal in front of a boisterous crowd of 1,022 fans at Claude Larose Arena.
This means the Lumberjacks now trail the best-of-seven affair 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for Monday night at McIntyre Arena in Timmins at 7 p.m.
The visitors came out fast as went up 1-0 a mere 34 seconds into the meeting as Derek Seguin scored his third of the playoffs to give the guests the early edge.
Answering back, Hearst connected on the power play midway through the opening frame on defenceman J.J. Berdal’s NOJHL playoff goal to tie it at 1-1 through the first.
The Lumberjacks kept coming and tacked on two more in the middle stanza as Troy Daniels and Dawson Waddell scored a minute and a half apart as the hosts went up by two.
Late in the session, the Rock cut into the deficit thanks to Rhys Chiddenton in the final minute, but Hearst countered just before the period expired with Fisher supplying a buzzer beater at 19:59 to make 4-2 after two.
Timmins made it interesting once more, pulling to within one, at 8:16 on a Keegan McMullen man advantage effort.
The Rock then pulled netminder Tyler Masternak in the late going for an extra attacker as they pressed for the equalizer in an attempt to force overtime, but Fisher iced it for the home side with 15 seconds left by putting one into an empty net to round out the scoring.
Bradley Golant and Max Johnson had two assists each to aid the Lumberjacks cause as did Seguin and Riley Robitaille for Timmins.
Shots on goal in the contest favoured Hearst 28-24 with Nicholas Tallarico picking up the win and Masternak the loss.
East Division semifinal
No. 1 Hearst Lumberjacks vs. No. 4 Timmins Rock
Timmins leads best-of-seven series 3-2
Game 1: Hearst 6 Timmins 3
Game 2: Timmins 6 Hearst 2
Game 3: Timmins 2 Hearst 1 (OT)
Game 4: Timmins 2 Hearst 1 (OT)
Game 5: Hearst 5 Timmins 3
Game 6: Monday, March 25 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 7*: Wednesday, March 27 @ Hearst 7 p.m. (Claude Larose Arena)