Greater Sudbury Cubs goalie Noah Beaulne reaches around behind him to sweep the puck out of his crease with his catching glove before Rock forward Thomas Beard can knock it into the net during the first period of Friday night’s NOJHL contest at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex. Beaulne lost his glove on the play, but he was able to keep the puck out of the net and the Cubs went on to defeat the Rock 3-1, extending Timmins’ losing skid to three games. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
The Timmins Rock kicked off a three-game weekend by dropping a 3-1 decision to the Greater Sudbury Cubs at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex Friday night.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
It was the third-straight loss for the Rock who will travel to Kirkland Lake for a game against the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex on Saturday, at 7 p.m., before returning home to host the French River Rapids at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex on Sunday, at 1 p.m.
While the Rock held their own against the Cubs for much of Friday night’s contest a number of glaring errors allowed Greater Sudbury to get back into the win column one day after the Hearst Lumberjacks snapped their 13-game winning streak.
Lucas Signoretti, the NOJHL’s scoring leader, got the puck rolling for the Cubs in the first period of the contest when he snuck a puck past Rock goalie Dryden Riley for his 17th goal of the season.
That mistake paled in comparison to the one that led to the Cubs second tally 3:49 into the second period, however, as three Greater Sudbury skaters broke in all alone on Riley, with Eidan Macartney taking a cross-crease pass from Ben Harris to deposit his sixth goal of the campaign into the Rock net.
The Rock finally got on the scoreboard 5:15 into the third period when Alexis Tremblay netted a power-play marker, his fifth goal of the season to provide the home fans with a little hope.
But that hope was dashed when Jacob Lamoureux deposited his third goal of the season into an empty Timmins net with Riley on the bench in favour of an extra attacker and 40 seconds remaining in regulation, making the final score 3-1 in favour of the visitors.
Cubs goalie Noah Beaulne turned aside 28 of the 29 shots the Rock directed his way to earn his ninth win of the season.
Riley, who stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Beaulne, Harris and Rock forward Reece Liu … The Rock went 1-6 on the power play, while the Cubs were 0-6 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex was 868 … Friday’s other action saw Storm edge the French River Rapids 3-2 in Iroquois Falls, the Thunderbirds stop the Powassan Voodoos 3-2 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and the Soo Eagles fly past the Vikings 4-1 in Elliot Lake.
