Timmins Rock blue-liner Ayden Trottier uses his body to shield the puck against the forechecking attempt of Blind River Beavers forward Evan Fraccaro to the side of goalie Dryden Riley’s net during action at the 2023 NOJHL Showcase in Sudbury on Wednesday. The Beavers rolled over the Rock 5-2, handing Timmins its fourth-straight loss. The Rock will look to rebound when they host the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena on Friday, at 7:30 p.m. PETRAH JOEHL/SUDBURY LIGHT EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY jpg, TD, apsmc
PHOTOS: Petrah Joehl – Sudbury Light Event Photography
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
SUDBURY — The Timmins Rock exited the 2023 NOJHL Showcase on Wednesday the same way they began it the day before — with a loss.
This time, it was the Blind River Beavers who were the architects of the Rock’s demise, skating to a 5-2 victory.
The Rock, who will look to regroup on Friday when they host the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena, at 7:30 p.m., have now lost four-straight games and fallen to 3-6-1-0 on the season.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry once again struggled to find any positives after his squad’s latest setback.
“Maybe we played a little bit better (in the third period), or maybe they were just up 5-0 and took their foot off the gas,” he said.
“It certainly wasn’t a good two days. We just have a lot of issues.
“We have got to get healthy, obviously, and our goaltending needs to be a little better. I thought Friday night we played a really solid game, but it just seems like every shot goes in, makes it hard to win games.”
On the health front, the Rock were once again without two of their more consistent blue-liners — Kyle Trottier and Tenzin Nyman.
“We have got some young guys stepping in who we would have liked more time with (before putting them into the lineup), but everybody has got a job to do,” Perry said.
“It is just little things with the backend right now. We are not picking up middle-in drivers, we are not boxing out, we are not lifting sticks, we are making bad reads, we are passing pucks to the other team.
“We have got to get back to basics and do the little things right.”
Even though the Rock outshot the Beavers in the first period of Wednesday’s contest, they found themselves in the familiar position of trailing after the opening period, 2-0.
Bryce Burnett gave Blind River the lead just 2:26 into the contest when he scored his second goal of the season.
Michael Gallagher then added his ninth goal of the campaign at the 16:38 mark.
Josh Thompson notched an unassisted power-play marker, his sixth goal of the season, 6:09 into the middle frame, increasing the Beavers lead to 3-0.
The Beavers added to their lead with a pair of third-period goals, 28 seconds apart, putting the game out of reach.
Sergy Suschenko found the back of the Rock net for his second goal of the season 2:14 into the frame.
Jack Robinson then followed with his sixth goal of the season to make it a 5-0 hockey game.
Liam Wells got the Rock on the scoreboard with a pair of late goals, his seventh and eighth of the season, with the second coming on the power play.
That would be as close as they would come to getting back on even terms, however.
Few players caught the eye of the Rock coach in Wednesday’s contest, but Wells was among the few who earned a little extra praise.
“I thought Wellsy played great in both games,” Perry said.
“He has been great all season but we need other guys to step up and do the same.
“I thought Dryden Riley played a solid game. I thought Harry Clark was good both days. Felix Cadieux-Fredette logged a lot of minutes, played solid hockey.”
The coach knows nobody around the NOJHL is feeling sorry for the defending champions.
“We are going to have to find a way to get out of this, get back on the ice at practice and clean up some stuff,” Perry said.
“Everybody circles the Timmins Rock on their schedule and everybody wants to beat us. We don’t get any easy nights. Things haven’t been easy, but we haven’t been playing well, either.
Noah Tegelaar, who stopped 31 of the 33 shots the Rock directed his way, picked up his fifth win of the season for the Beavers.
Rock goalie Dryden Riley, who stopped 27 of the 32 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Beavers blue-liner Adam Prax, Wells and Beavers forward Brendan Cooke (two assists) … Both the Rock and the Beavers went 1-3 on the power play … Wednesday’s other action saw the Espanola Paper Kings stop the Iroquois Falls Storm 7-1, the Soo Thunderbirds blank the Hearst Lumberjacks 3-0, the Elliot Lake Vikings knock off the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-2, the Soo Eagles edge the French River Rapids 4-3 and the Powassan Voodoos hand the Greater Sudbury Cubs their first loss of the season, 3-1 … The Rock will host the Storm at the McIntyre Arena, on Friday, at 7:30 p.m.
