Rock blue-liner Kenyon Nyman and Soo Eagles forward Chase Tallaire battle for a loose puck in front of Timmins goalie Patrick Boivin during Wednesday NOJHL Showcase game at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex. Tallaire scored a goal and added an assist as the Eagles went on to defeat the Rock 5-1. SUDBURY LIGHT EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY/FOR NOJHL NETWORK
The Timmins Rock’s struggles continued on Day 2 of the 2022 NOJHL Showcase Tournament.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
After dropping a 3-2 overtime decision to the Soo Thunderbirds on Tuesday, the Rock suffered a 5-1 setback against the Soo Eagles at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex on Wednesday.
For those keeping track, the Rock have just one victory in their past six games after starting the campaign 4-0-0-0.
And they won’t have much time to right the ship, as they will host the Cochrane Crunch at the McIntyre Arena on Friday, at 7:30 p.m.
While the Rock handled the Crunch with relative ease, winning 7-1 at the Tim Horton Event Centre in Cochrane back on Sept. 16, their East Division rivals have been playing much better hockey of late.
According to Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry the reason his team lost to the Eagles isn’t complicated.
“We just played a better hockey team, plain and simple,” he said.
“The details of our game are none existent (right now) and they took advantage of it.
“They capitalized on their chances and we didn’t.
“We are just not a good hockey team right now.”
Wednesday afternoon, the Rock fell behind 2-0 in the first period and were forced to play catch-up hockey.
Jack Mortson’s seventh goal of the season got the Eagles flying 7:31 into the frame.
Gavin Rozema then scored his first goal of the season with 2:40 remaining on the clock.
The Rock attempted to get back into the hockey game in the second period, with blue-liner Felix Cadieux-Fredette scoring his second goal of the season just 1:30 into the frame.
Early in the third period, the Rock were able to keep the score close, but Kenny Belanger Jr. added his sixth goal of the season at the 5:08 mark to provide the Eagles with a little insurance.
Then, Jack Paweski netted a power-play marker, his first goal of the season, to extend the Eagles advantage to three goals.
And Chase Tallaire put the icing on the cake when he deposited his sixth goal of the season into an empty Rock net with Timmins goalie Patrick Boivin on the bench in favour of an extra attacker and 45 seconds remaining in regulation.
With the Rock having played two games in two days, and facing a third game in four days on Friday, Perry will opt to give his troops a day off Thursday.
“We will just let them regroup, try to think about what they want to do going forward,” he said.
“It has been a tough two days, but we have just got to play better.”
The coach opted not to single out any of his players for praise following Thursday’s contest.
“Everybody was okay, but nobody stood out — good or bad,” Perry said.
The Rock could be without the services of Nicholas Frederick (tied for the team lead in goals, with eight), as the forward went down with an upper-body injury during Wednesday’s contest.
“He is 100 per cent the last guy we can afford to lose from our lineup,” Perry said.
“He is the example we like to set every day.”
The coach knows his Rock can’t afford to take the Crunch lightly Friday night if they hope to regain their winning ways.
“They are playing really good hockey right now,” Perry said.
“They are getting great goaltending (Marcus Ouellet: 246:00, 2-1-1-0, 0, 2.92, .942) and they are winning games.
“Friday is going to be a good test for us.”
The coach wanted to clarify some comments he made following Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Thunderbirds, as well.
“I want to apologize to the Kirkland Lake and Cochrane organizations for my comments Tuesday,” Perry said.
“I wasn’t insinuating they are easy to play against. The message I was trying to send was when we are up by three or four goals our guys want to compete and they want to play.
“Everybody wants to get in on the action and everybody gets hungry.
“We don’t have enough of that when we are tied or it’s a close game, we don’t have enough of that effort.
“I certainly wasn’t insinuating and disrespect to those organizations. They do a great job and work extremely hard.
“Obviously, it just came out wrong.”
Eagles goalie Logan Raffaele, who turned aside 13 of the 14 shots the Rock were able to direct his way, picked up his fifth win of the season.
Boivin, who blocked 14 of the 18 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The stars of the game were Mortson for the Eagles and forward Ethan Pool for the Rock … The Rock went 0-1 on the power play, while the Eagles were 1-3 with the man advantage … The Rock will return to action on Friday when the host the Crunch at the McIntyre Arena, at 7:30 p.m.
