With 38 points in his first 32 games of the 2024-25 NOJHL campaign, Lucas Lowe, shown here celebrating a goal against the Espanola Paper Kings on Nov. 29, leads all Timmins Rock point producers. The 2005-birth-year Toronto product now has 109 points in 138 career games, even more remarkable given he was better known for his checking and defensive play when he first arrive in the NOJHL. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
As the Timmins Rock enjoy their Christmas break, it is time reflect back upon the first 32 games of their 2024-25 NOJHL campaign.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
The fifth-place Rock (20-12-0-0) find themselves comfortably in a playoff position, nine points up on the Voodoos (14-11-0-3), although Powassan has four games in hand.
Still fifth place doesn’t sit well with a Rock franchise that is two seasons removed from winning an NOJHL championship and one season removed from a first place finish in the East Division standings.
More alarming than their current fifth place spot in the 12-team NOJHL standings is the fact they entered the break riding a four-game losing skid, with five setbacks in their previous six contests.
Not Rock hockey, to say the least.
Coming out of the NOJHL’s Christmas break, the Rock will attempt to climb their way to the top of the standings — taking aim first at the Eagles and the Beavers who are each two points ahead of them in the standings, although the Soo has four games in hand and Blind River one.
Offensively, the Rock’s 138 goals in the first half trailed only the Greater Sudbury Cubs and the Hearst Lumberjacks, each of whom finished with 153 markers.
That total is even more impressive given one of the team’s top snipers, 2007-birth-year forward Brant Romaniuk, got into just nine games before he signed with the QMJHL’s Olympiques de Gatineau and one after his return to the NOJHL.
Despite getting into just 10 games in the first half of the campaign, Romaniuk’s nine goals have him tied for the sixth most on the squad.
Jack Kelly’s 16 goals on the season, including three game-winners, leads all Rock skaters.
Kaeden McArthur, with 13 goals, is second, followed by Lucas Lowe (12 goals), Thomas Beard (10 goals), Ryan Armitage (10 goals), Romaniuk (nine goals) Reece Liu (nine goals), Henry McLellan (nine goals), Clark Scaddan (eight goals) and Alexis Tremblay (eight goals).
In terms of points, Lowe, with 38 in 32 games, is the only Rock player in the Top 10 of the NOJHL’s scoring race, sitting in seventh place.
When it comes to goals, the Rock have not gotten a lot from their blue-line, as Braedyn Cyr leads the way with four, while Tenzin Nyman, Ethan Albert and Sam Gallagher each have a pair of markers.
Cyr, with 21 points in 31 games, and Nyman, with 20 points in 26 games, are both among the NOJHL’s Top 10 scoring blue-liners, at this points, sitting fifth and tied for sixth respectfully.
When it comes to special teams, the Rock have the second most lethal power play in the NOJHL, at 25.3 per cent, trailing only the Cubs (30.3 per cent).
Beard leads all Rock snipers in terms of power-play markers, with six so far. He is followed by Kelly, Tremblay and Lowe, who each have five, and McArthur, with four to this point.
The Rock have allowed just three shorthanded goals while they have enjoyed the man advantage, tied for third fewest with the Cubs and the Soo Thunderbirds, trailing only the Beavers (one) and Voodoos (two).
On the other side of the special teams’ equation, the Rock penalty kill ranks sixth, at 78.8 per cent.
Thankfully, the Rock have been shorthanded just 118 times this season, third fewest in the NOJHL.
With four shorthanded goals to their credit, the Rock are in a three-way tie for ninth place in the league with the Thunderbirds and the Espanola Paper Kings.
Beard, Armitage, Travis Poan and Ryan Boon each have a shorthanded marker for the Rock this season.
Traditionally, the Rock are among the best defensive teams in the NOJHL, but they currently find themselves in fifth spot having allowed 90 goals to this point in the season.
That trails the Cubs (69 goals), the Eagles (73 goals), the Voodoos (79 goals) and the Beavers (88 goals).
Despite that fact, the Rock’s top puck stopper, goalie Dryden Riley, has posted the best goals against average in the NOJHL, at 2.13, and the top save percentage in the league, at .930.
Riley’s 13 wins also have him tied for third place in the NOJHL, trailing only Noah Beaulne, of the Cubs, and Alexandre Boivin, of the Hearst Lumberjacks, who each have 14 on the season.
Riley’s understudy, Graham Gee, had similar numbers prior to encountering a recent rough stretch but has still posted a respectable 3.42 goals against average and .876 save percentage, while winning seven games.
As with most seasons, there is one area in which none of the NOJHL’s other 11 franchises can come close to the Rock — attendance.
To this point in the season, the Rock have averaged 836 fans per game, 116 more than the Eagles, who are averaging 729 butts in seats so far this season.
When it comes to single game attendance, however, the Eagles high is 1,036, 34 more than the 1,002 fans who packed the Mac for one of the Rock games in the first half.
Given attendance at Rock games tends to climb as the playoffs approach, there is a reasonable chance they will surpass that Eagles number before the buzzer sounds on the final game of the NOJHL campaign.
The second half of the NOJHL schedule will see the Rock open with a game against the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex in Kirkland Lake on Friday, Jan. 10, at 7:30 p.m.
They will then return home to host the Powassan Voodoos at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 1 p.m.
