French River forward Bryson Villeneuve dives to knock the puck past Timmins defender Sam Gallagher as Rock blue-liner Ethan Albert and Rapids D-man Jack Wilson look on during Saturday night’s NOJHL contest at the Noelville Arena. The Rapids went on to double up the Rock 6-3.
Photos: Cassy Seguin
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
FRENCH RIVER — The Timmins Rock concluded a wasted two-game weekend road trip with a 6-3 loss to the Rapids at the Noelville Arena Saturday night.
It came in the wake of a 5-2 setback suffered at the hands of the Voodoos in Powassan Friday night.
While the Rock have added four forwards in recent weeks, coach and general manager Brandon Perry hinted rather strongly following Saturday night’s loss that more changes will be coming.
“We have a lot of issues right now,” he said. “We need to get a save, first of all. That would help. Our penalty kill was not great.”
Asked if there were any positives the Rock can take from either one of the weekend losses, Perry’s response was short and to the point: “No! Friday, we played hard, but we couldn’t get a save. Dryds (goalie Dryden Riley) let in three on the first five shots. Friday, we gave up five shots in the first period, six in the second period and five in the third period and I bet six of those shots were dump-ins.
“You hold a team to less than 20 shots, you should win hockey games and we are not. That’s four losses now where we have outshot teams.”
Things were even worse on the defensive side of the puck Saturday night, as the Rock were outshot 38-31.
“Tonight, our D Zone (coverage) was absolutely atrocious,” Perry said. “We just look like we don’t want to play hockey right now. Our special teams are obviously not great. Our power play has been a disaster all season. Our penalty kill had been second in the league all season until probably this weekend (now tied for third). I didn’t think we had a problem there, but we are going to have to look at it.
“It’s personnel and guys just aren’t doing their jobs. We just don’t take anything seriously. We are a mentally fragile group and we are going to make some changes.”
Up front, the Rock have brought in forwards Dawson Boily (7, 1-2-3, 4) from the OJHL’s Aurora Tigers, Clark Scaddan (5, 2-2-4, 0) from the SIJHL’s Fort Frances Lakers, Nathan Marincola (2, 1-0-1, 0) from the Espanola Paper Kings and Kai Clayton (1, 0-0-0, 0) from the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, while shipping Jaden Lyons off to the Iroquois Falls Storm.
“Things just haven’t been good since the (NOJHL) Showcase, what are we 3-5-0-0, something like that?” Perry said.
“We are not good enough, anywhere. Our top line, our 20 year olds are not good enough. Our depth is non-existent. Our D and our goaltending are big issues for us right now.
“Special teams stuff is on me. I will get that straightened out. Personnel stuff is on me. I will get that straightened out, too.”
Things actually started off on a positive note for the Rock Saturday night, as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead within four minutes of the opening puck drop.
Reece Liu scored his fifth goal of the season just over a minute into the contest. And Aaron Shaw followed with his third goal of the campaign.
Things went off the rails from there, however, as the Rapids struck for three goals late in the opening frame to erase their deficit and take a one-goal advantage heading into the first intermission.
Hunter Vilanez accounted for the first two markers, as he netted his eighth and ninth tallies of the season. Cameron Jansa added a power-play marker, his seventh goal of the campaign.
The Rock actually tied things up at 3-3 early in the middle frame, as Travis Poan netted his fifth goal of the season.
Another power-play marker, Joey Stiles third goal of the season, put the Rapids back in front later in the period.
The Rapids then added two more goals in the third period to ice the victory.
Michael Christopoulos scored his ninth goal of the season early in the frame and Alexandre Dubuc deposited his third tally of the campaign into an empty Rock net late in the period with goalie Graham Gee on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
Following Saturday night’s setback, the Rock (10-6-0-0) find themselves in fourth place in the NOJHL standings, one point behind the Blind River Beavers (10-6-1-0) and one point ahead of the Soo Eagles (9-6-0-1).
Brock Grein turned aside 19 of the 22 shots the Rock directed his way to earn his second win of the season.
Gee, who stopped 32 of the 37 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Saturday’s game were Jansa, Rapids blue-liner Gavin Haslam (three assists) and Vilanez … The Rock went 0-5 on the power play Saturday, while the Rapids were 2-7 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Noelville Arena Saturday night was 129 … Saturday’s other action saw the Powassan Voodoos top the Gold Miners 6-4 in Kirkland Lake, the Eagles fly past the Iroquois Falls Storm in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and the Hearst Lumberjacks beat the Vikings 4-1 in Elliot Lake … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Greater Sudbury Cubs at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex, at 7 p.m.
