Timmins Rock captain Maxx Hamelin (No. 71) is congratulated by teammates, from left, Thomas Jaakkola, Edan Etheridge and MacKenzie Souter during the first period of Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Hamelin scored twice and set up another goal as the Rock went on to double up the Rapids 6-3. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
Timmins coach and general manager Sheldon Reasbeck, who described Friday night’s 4-3 win over the Thunderbirds as “ugly,” struggled to find an adjective to describe Sunday afternoon’s victory
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
Captain Maxx Hamelin scored twice and set up another tally as the Timmins Rock doubled up a determined French River Rapids squad 6-3 at the McIntyre Arena, Sunday afternoon.
It was the third game in four days for the Rock who knocked off the first-place Soo Thunderbirds 4-3 at the McIntyre Arena, Friday night, after suffering a 3-2 shootout setback against the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake Thursday night.
The Rock were unable to find the scoreboard until after Rapids starting goalie Gavin Zuccato was forced to leave the game with a lower-body injury 12:16 into the opening period.
Zuccato, who had stopped all 10 shots he had faced to that point, had to be helped off the ice and appeared to be in a great deal of pain.
Calvin Gardner came off the bench in relief and just over two minutes later Hamelin got the Rock on the scoreboard when he netted his fifth goal of the season.
Simon Toupin doubled the Rock advantage less than a minute later, as he netted his second goal of the campaign.
But the Rapids rallied for a pair markers 1:40 apart late in the frame to tie things up at 2-2 heading into the first intermission.
Tristan Lavoie accounted for the first of those two tallies, his second goal of the season and Dacey Dupuis followed with a power-play marker, also his second of the campaign.
The Rock regained the lead 5:55 into the middle frame when blue-liner MacKenzie Souter scored his first career NOJHL goal, the period’s lone marker.
“We had a set offensive play and (Ashton) Beriana passed the puck across the ice to me and I saw an opening low on the goalie’s glove side and I just shot it right in the net,” Souter said.
The North Vancouver, B.C., product added an assist on Hamelin’s second goal of the game, giving him four points in his first five games in a Rock uniform.
“I consider myself to be a defensive defenseman first, then I jump up on offence at the right time,” Souter said.
While the blue-liner is new to the NOJHL, he realizes the Rock need to capitalize on every chance they get to win hockey games.
“We needed to play hard for the whole game, but we were finally able to bounce back in the third period to seal the game up,” Souter said. “We have to work this coming week in practice to get dialed into (playing better) in the first and second periods.”
Souter had an opportunity to spend time with most of the other Rock blue-liners during Sunday afternoon’s contest.
“Mostly it was Ben Climenhaga and Thomas Jaakkola,” he said, when asked about his D-partners for the game. “I thought we did well.”
Up 3-2 heading into the third period, the Rock appeared to be focused on protecting that slim advantage.
But Leif Sigfusson’s power-play marker, his second goal of the season, tied things up at 3-3 11:45 into the third period.
That’s when Hamelin appeared to put his team on his shoulders, first setting up Edan Etheridge’s game-winning power-play marker, his fourth goal of the season, and then adding his second tally of the contest and sixth of the season to provide the Rock with a little breathing room.
Matteo Paradiso added his first goal of the season with just over a minute remaining on the clock to provide the icing on the cake.
Rock coach and general manager Sheldon Reasbeck, who described Friday night’s 4-3 win over the Thunderbirds as “ugly,” struggled to find an adjective to describe Sunday afternoon’s victory.
“Well, it was great the boys actually proved they can play hockey in the third period with five minutes left,” he said.
Reasbeck acknowledged Hamelin’s role in rallying the troops late in the contest.
“Maxx was very vocal going into the third period and during the third period, in terms of ‘we have got to dig in,’” he said. “It doesn’t matter who we are playing against, we have to play our game, execute what we want to execute, have the work ethic, have everything in place, not take shifts off.
“He got the boys fired up and then they started doing the right things.”
Asked if it was a matter of the Rapids shutting the Rock down during the game’s first two periods or if they simply weren’t executing the game plan, the coach was diplomatic, to a point.
“I would say it was mainly us not executing,” Reasbeck said. “Our breakout habits we work on were none existent for the first two periods.
“In the third period, we started doing them and we got rewarded. We were in the right spots and the game was flowing. We had puck support all over the ice in our D zone. It is just about getting to the puck and putting in the work to do it, every single shift.”
Reasbeck gave the Rapids credit for the effort they put into giving the Rock all they could handle Sunday afternoon.
“They played hard and they showed a great work ethic,” he said. “You can’t let a team like that linger in games and that’s what we did through the first two periods.”
The coach liked what he saw from Souter on the Rock blue-line, Sunday afternoon.
“Souts had a great game in terms of bumping up his work ethic,” Reasbeck said. “He has all the tools and that’s what we want from him moving forward, that fire, that work ethic.”
The line of Rock Oosterveld, Philippe Lafontaine and Thomas Ranger also earned a little extra praise, although they were kept off the scoreboard.
“(Rock) is just a workhorse in all areas of the ice,” Reasbeck said. “He just gives his all, all of the time. He just has to fine tune a few things in terms of playing within a system that will help him create more, bury more pucks and get more points.
“That line was all over the net but they just couldn’t bury the puck, but they were doing good things and working.”
Ayden Mullen, who blocked 31 of the 34 shots he faced, earned his fourth win of the season in for starts for the Rock.
Zuccato, who stopped all 10 shots directed his way in his 12:16 of action, was not involved in the decision. Gardner, who turned aside 41 of the 47 shots the Rock fired his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Hamelin, Souter and Sigfusson … The Rock went 1-4 on the power play, while the Rapids were 2-6 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 711 … Sunday’s only other contest saw the Soo Thunderbirds blank the Gold Miners 3-0 in Kirkland Lake … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Espanola Paper Kings at the McIntyre Arena, at 7 p.m.
