Timmins Rock forward Kai Clayton carries the puck past Alumni forward Linden Spencer as teammates Zach Secord, left, and Matthew Kim look on during Sunday afternoon’s exhibition contest at the McIntyre Arena. Clayton scored three third-period goals to help lead the Rock to a 7-4 victory over the Alumni. The Rock will host the French River Rapids at the McIntyre Arena on Tuesday, at 7 p.m., as NOJHL action resumes. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
The Timmins Rock earned a pair of victories Sunday afternoon, although only one of them will help with their quest to secure fourth place in the NOJHL standings prior to the start of the 2025 playoffs.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
With the Elliot Lake Vikings — Sunday’s originally scheduled opponents — being granted a leave of absence for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign, the Rock secured a 1-0 victory by forfeit.
And they then outlasted their Alumni 7-4 in an entertaining contest in front of 1,076 enthusiastic fans at the McIntyre Arena.
Early on, the Alumni gave the Rock everything they could handle and then some, keeping the game tied at 3-3 through two 15-minute periods.
Current Rock forward Ryan Armitage got his squad on the scoreboard first, as he netted the lone goal of the opening period.
Early in the middle frame, Clark Scaddan scored to put the Rock up 2-0 in the contest.
But blue-liner Carson Burlington got the Alumni on the scoreboard to cut into the Rock advantage and a few minutes later, former Rock captain Wayne Mathieu tied things up at 2-2.
The Rock regained the lead when forward Reece Liu found the back of the net behind Alumni goalie Patrick Boivin.
Once again, the Alumni battled back to tie things up, at 3-3, before the end of the period on a Stewart Parnell goal.
The Alumni appeared to run out of gas during the final 15-minute period, although they kept things close early in the frame.
Kai Clayton put the Rock in front 4-3 with the first of his three goals in the period, but the Alumni tied things up on a Karter Renouf marker.
Clayton then converted on a give-and-go with linemate Liu for what would prove to be the game-winning goal and his second tally of the contest to put the Rock in front 5-4.
Jack Kelly then found the back of the net to increase the Rock advantage.
Clayton then completed his hat-trick by scoring his third goal of the period with 59.16 seconds remaining in the game.
“It was a close game, you have to give props to them because most of them probably haven’t played in a while,” Clayton said.
“Overall, it was just a fun experience.”
The 20-year-old forward, playing in his first year in a Rock uniform after being acquired from the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners back on Oct. 26, was impressed with the number of fans who attended what was basically an exhibition contest.
“It is awesome, it just shows how much support we have and what we are going to get in the playoffs,” Clayton said.
Clearly, the combination of Clayton, Liu and Kelly found some chemistry in the third period, but the former noted it is easy to play with any combination of Rock forwards.
“All of our forwards are great players, so it doesn’t really matter who you play with,” Clayton said. “We can gel with anyone out there. We are close, like brothers.”
Parnell, who broke into the NOJHL with the Rock during the 2016-17 campaign and wrapped up his Junior ‘A’ career following the 2020 playoffs, was happy to be back on the ice at the McIntyre Arena.
“Our goalie played outstanding this afternoon but they were able to get a few past him at the end,” he said. “It is unfortunate, but I thought it was a good game.”
The season after his Junior ‘A’ career came to an end, Parnell, now 25, spent time in Europe with TuS Harsefeld, of the Germany4 League, but his competitive days are pretty much behind him now.
“I have been playing a bit of men’s league, trying to work out here and there to keep my legs in shape, but I have just been working pretty much,” he said.
“I am not the player I once was, but I thought we all played pretty good. We had a good showing this afternoon.”
Like Clayton, Parnell was impressed by the size of the crowd that attended Sunday afternoon’s game and cheered just as loudly for Alumni goals and they did Rock markers.
“It was amazing, I can’t describe this feeling,” he said. “I am glad Perrs (Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry) agreed to do this. We had a great turnout. His players are phenomenal and they have a great team.
“The players we brought back were a strong group and I am really glad I got to play with these guys again. It brought back a lot of memories, getting to skate in front of such great fans and play hockey.”
Parnell played on a line with Renouf and Jace Soroko, a combination that dates back many, many years.
“I played with them my whole life, while we were growing up, so it was a special moment getting to play with these guys again,” he said.
If the Alumni and the Rock decide to do it again next year, Parnell would definitely like to be part of the event.
“That would be amazing,” he said. “It has been a great fundraiser and I would like to give a shout out to (Alumni player and organizer) Riley Robitaille, who set everything up. He had to go through a lot to set it up and get everything going, but it has been fantastic.”
Perry, who added young son Brooks to the Rock coaching staff with assistant Boivin tending goal for the Alumni, breathed a sigh of relief when the final buzzer sounded and all of his players exited the contest as healthy as they had entered it.
As a precaution, a number of key Rock players had been healthy scratches to avoid the injury bug, not to give the Alumni more of a fighting chance at victory.
“Those guys just sat out because we were in a war Thursday night (a 5-5 tie against the Beavers in Blind River) and some guys were banged up,” Perry said. “You just never know, a guy catches an edge the wrong way, somebody falls on somebody, somebody slides into your goalie, whatever it is, you just kind of want to avoid those things.
“Obviously, nothing happened and it was a great game, a ton of fun and we had a blast. I hope they did, too. There are a lot of great players on the other side of the ice who did a lot of great things for this organization and they deserved this moment.”
Perry feels the size of the crowd was a testament to the players on the other side of the ice.
“They did a lot of good things, not just out on the ice, but in the community, as well,” he said.
“It is a testament to how hard they played when they were here, the legacy they left, so to speak.”
Perry had a chance to speak to the Alumni before the game and express his appreciation for what they brought to the organization.
“The foundation they laid in this program, for us to have the success we had and continue to have is because of them,” he said. “They built a good culture, especially those last couple of years with Beersy (former Rock coach Corey Beer), and it was really easy for me, as a first-time head coach to come in and carry that on. It was so good to see those guys.”
With five games remaining on their regular-season schedule, time is running out on the Rock’s quest to overtake the Soo Eagles and/or the Blind River Beavers to try and ensure home-ice advantage for Round 1 of the playoffs.
Following the weekend, the fifth-place Rock (29-15-2-1) find themselves seven points behind the third-place Beavers (32-13-2-2) and six points back of the fourth-place Eagles (32-14-0-3), although they have two games in hand on each.
Perry realizes how important it was for the Rock to pick up that point in Blind River Thursday night, given how quickly the playoffs are approaching.
“I loved our game, that was a fantastic road game,” he said. “To be honest with you, we just needed a save. Dryds (goalie Dryden Riley) would be the first one to admit that. It wasn’t his best night. Some of those goals shouldn’t have gone in and they did but our team had really good resilience to battle back and battle back. The last goal wasn’t on Dryden at all. We made a terrible mistake coming out of the corner and turned the puck over, but it was a great, great road game.
“That’s a team we might face the first round of the playoffs and if we do, it will be a hell of a series.”
Graham Gee went the distance in net for the Rock to earn the victory, while Boivin was tagged with the loss for the Alumni.
NOJHL Notes — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Clayton, Liu and Parnell … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 1,076 … Sunday’s other action saw the Gold Miners and the Espanola Paper Kings battle to a 2-2 draw in Kirkland Lake and the Beavers edge the Soo Eagles 4-3 in Blind River … The Rock will return to action on Tuesday when they host the French River Rapids at the McIntyre Arena, at 7 p.m. The game had originally be scheduled for Jan. 26, but a water main break forced its postponement.
