Blind River Beavers goalie Connor Dunham-Fox makes one his 42 saves while Timmins Rock forward Travis Poan waits on his doorstep in hopes of being able to pounce on a rebound during the third period of Friday night’s NOJHL game at the McIntyre Arena. Dunham-Fox did eventually drop the puck and Poan deposited it into the Blind River net, but not before referee Marco Lizotte had blown his whistle, negating a possible game-tying goal. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
Connor Dunham-Fox made 42 saves to backstop the Blind River Beavers to a 2-1 win over the Timmins Rock at the McIntyre Arena Friday night.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
After beating the Beavers 3-1 at the NOJHL Showcase in Sudbury on Wednesday, the injury depleted Rock struggled to generate quality scoring opportunities despite outshooting Blind River 43-25.
Going 0-7 on the power play and having their leading scorer, Brant Romaniuk, take a tripping penalty in the offensive zone while they were enjoying a two-man advantage in the third period of Friday night’s contest certainly didn’t help.
“We just didn’t have enough tonight and going 0-7 on the power play is embarrassing,” said Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry.
“Guys just didn’t want to work hard on it (power play). We are going to have to look at it and make the necessary adjustments.
“They (Beavers) played hard and their penalty kill was fantastic and they capitalized on their opportunities.”
For the second time in the past three home games, the Rock ran into a hot goaltender and just couldn’t get enough pucks past Dunham-Fox — who earned his first victory at the McIntyre Arena after struggling in the building as a member of the Iroquois Falls Storm in 2023-24.
“He played well, a really good game,” Perry said.
The Beavers jumped out to a 1-0 lead 6:15 into the opening period on Keenan Conn’s fifth goal of the season after a Rock blue-liner misplayed the puck to the right of goalie Dryden Riley.
Just over three minutes later, Aaron Dukeshire added what would prove to be the game-winning marker, also his fifth goal of the season.
Neither team was able to find the back of the net during the second period, with the Beavers outshooting the Rock 10-9.
The Rock finally got on the scoreboard 18 seconds into the third period when Romaniuk netted his team-leading ninth goal of the season.
Twice the Rock appeared to have tied things up later in the third period, only to learn the referee had blown the whistle before the puck entered the net.
In the latter stages of the frame, the Rock pulled Riley in favour of an extra attacker, but they were unable to secure the equalizer.
Beavers coach and general manager Kyle Brick was happy to see his squad secure a victory in a building that can be tough for opposition teams to play in, especially when it is packed with fans.
“We were able to weather the storm and I thought our penalty kill was exceptional,” he said.
“We had a lot of opportunities to kill penalties, so we worked on that all night.”
The coach agreed, of course, that his team’s best penalty killer was their goalie, Dunham-Fox.
“Foxy came up to me before we left the ice (after the game) and said it was his first win in Timmins after having a rough go with Iroquois Falls here last year,” Brick said.
The Beavers coach had a little extra praise for a few of his other players, as well.
“Dukeshire was unbelievable tonight, relentless on the forecheck,” Brick said.
“Owen King was also doing his thing out there, creating every time he touched the puck and (Mattis) Lafond on the back end was just a Steady Eddie for us.”
The Beavers coach feels his squad did a few little things better Friday night than they had against the Rock in the NOJHL Showcase Wednesday.
“I think we just created more, we were able to get to the net a little bit and we played on emotion,” Brick said. “We were also able to get an early lead and as the game went on we were able to ride the wave.
“You are not going to shutout a Brandon Perry-coached team very often, so we knew they were going to score a goal and how we were going to react was important and I thought we did a good job of protecting our net even though we were outshot tonight.”
With only a couple of 20 year olds in their lineup, the Beavers iced a much younger team than they have in recent years.
“We are so young and we are still learning how to win properly,” Brick said. “Young kids, when they can play on emotion and hoot and holler, it kind of keeps them up. That is going to be important for us all year with this young group.”
There are, of course pros and cons to coach such a young group of hockey players.
“It is exciting to coach such a young team but it is also a bit of a headache at times, but we are learning from each other and we will be fine,” Brick said.
The Beavers feature a combination of size, skill and speed that should form the foundation of a successful hockey club.
“Size was something I felt we didn’t have last year in our series against Greater Sudbury,” Brick said. “So, that was a goal during the summer, to get bigger on defence, as well as meaner, with a little bit of anger in our game.
“I think we were able to do that and we were still able to get some skill guys, with speed through the neutral zone.”
Despite the loss, there was one Rock player who caught the eye of his coach in Friday night’s contest.
“I thought (affiliate player) Mavrick Boucher did a good job after getting called up,” Perry said.
“We have a lot of guys out right now and you could tell by the dysfunction on the power play, with new guys slotting in, different units.
“It was a mess. It was a sloppy hockey game out of us. We didn’t execute very much.”
The Rock don’t play again for nine days, but there is no guarantee any of the players who are currently out of the lineup will be back in time for their next contest.
“I can only think of one who would be close, but it’s what we have got right now,” Perry said.
The Rock were missing five players from the lineup Friday night — blue-liners Tenzin Nyman and Ayden Trottier, and forwards Hayden Rynard, Ryan Armitage and Reece Liu.
Dunham-Fox turned aside 42 of the 43 shots the Rock directed his way to earn his fourth win of the season for the Beavers — one more victory than he had with the Storm during the entire 2023-24 campaign.
Riley, who stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Dunham-Fox, Rock blue-liner Ethan Albert (one assist) and Conn … The Rock went 0-7 on the power play, while the Beavers were 0-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 971 … Friday’s other action saw the Lumberjacks double up the Espanola Paper Kings 8-4 in Hearst, the Greater Sudbury Cubs blank the Gold Miners 8-0 in Kirkland Lake and the Vikings top the Soo Eagles 4-2 in Elliot Lake … The Rock will return to action on Sunday, Oct. 13, when they host the Storm at the McIntyre Arena, at 1 p.m.
