TIMMINS, Ont. – Continuing to impress, the surging Timmins Rock racked up their 18th straight Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory Friday in dumping the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 8-3 at McIntyre Arena.
Continuing their mastery of the Gold Miners, the Rock have registered 56 consecutive victories over them, last suffering a defeat against this opponent back on November 29, 2018.
It was Kirkland Lake who opened the scoring, moments into a man advantage, after Daniel Risu corralled the puck at the left point then moved in and pumped a shot upstairs on Timmins’ goaltender Ayden Mullen.
More from the Gold Miners saw them use some crisp puck movement in the Rock zone that led to Nathan Harper ripping a short-side sizzler past Mullen.
Regrouping, Matteo Paradiso tallied twice late for the home side to knot the affair at 2-2 after 20 minutes.
His first saw him finish off the work of linemates Maxx Hamelin and Maxfeld Shin and 16:30.
Paradiso then potted the equalizer in the waning moments of the period during a two-man advantage after cranking in a second chance with a blast from the right circle.
Still on the power play early in the middle frame, Kaeden McArthur put Timmins on top by burying the rebound from a sharp angle off a Thomas Beard attempt.
The assist for Beard sees him run a point streak to 10 straight outings.
A shorthanded effort off the stick of Harper brought Kirkland Lake back even at 4:13 as he forced a turnover, then spun in front and lifted in a nice backhand.
Retaking the lead two minutes later, Nolan Masson sent a harmless looking shot from the side boards that flew into the net for the Rock.
Going up by two, halfway through the night, Diego Da Silva made it 5-3 by wiring a shot through the legs of Miners’ starter Brian Rathwell.
Finishing it off in the third, an Edan Etheridge five-hole wrister by Rathwell from the left circle and two more from Da Silva to complete a hat trick as he wired one high blocker side then supplied a nifty between the legs flip shot to seal the victory.
In maintaining their torrid pace, Timmins improved to 24-5-0-1 on the campaign while Kirkland Lale slipped to 11-20-0-3 in defeat.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
