VIDEO / GALLERY: Harroun nets pair of goals, as Rock blank Crunch 9-0

Timmins Rock forward Brady Harroun drills a shot over the glove hand of Crunch goalie Marcus Ouellet and into the Cochrane net for his 20th goal of the season during the first period of Tuesday night’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. The goal stood up to be the game-winner and Harroun went on to add his NOJHL-leading 21st tally of the season later in the contest, as the Rock posted a 9-0 victory over the Crunch. The two sides will meet in the second half of the home-and-home series at the Tim Horton Event Centre on Friday, at 7 p.m. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS

Brady Harroun scored a pair of goals — including his NOJHL-leading 21st tally of the season — to help lead the Timmins Rock to a 9-0 victory over the Cochrane Crunch at the McIntyre Arena Tuesday night.


Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network


TIMMINS – Brady Harroun scored a pair of goals — including his NOJHL-leading 21st tally of the season — to help lead the Timmins Rock to a 9-0 victory over the Cochrane Crunch at the McIntyre Arena Tuesday night.

The first half of a home-and-home series between the East Division rivals that will see the two squads face off at the Tim Horton Event Centre Friday night, was a lot closer than the final score might indicate before the Rock erupted for five unanswered third-period markers.

Harroun’s power-play marker, at the 12:19 mark of the opening period, stood up to be the game-winning goal — tying him with Powassan Voodoos sniper Tucker Shields for the most contest-clinching tallies (six) this season.

Thomas Beard’s fourth goal of the season four-and-a-half minutes later expanded the Rock advantage to 2-0.

Then, just past the midway mark of the second period, Crunch captain Will Stewart was sent off for a hit to the head that leveled Harroun at the top of the face-off circle to the left of the Crunch net.

After shaking off the hit, Harroun netted his second power-play marker of the contest to increase the Rock lead to 3-0.

And Liam Wells added his 12th goal of the season six minutes later to give the Rock a four-goal advantage heading into the second intermission.

Lucas Lowe set off the Rock’s third-period explosion when he netted the first of his two goals in the frame and fourth of the season 45 seconds into the third period.

Just over three minutes later, blue-liner Tenzin Nyman netted the first goal of his Junior ‘A’ career to make it a 6-0 hockey game.

Lowe followed with his second goal of the period and fifth of the season a minute and a half later.

And blue-liner Kenyon Nyman then added his ninth goal of the season, making it 8-0 and chasing Crunch starting goalie Marcus Ouellet.

Jake Dubinsky came on in relief for the Crunch, but his luck wasn’t much better.

Nolan Ring greeted him with his 10th goal of the season to close out the scoring and make the final 9-0 in favour of the Rock.

Tenzin Nyman was all smiles after getting the first goal of his Junior ‘A’ career Tuesday night.

“The play developed off the draw and Liam Wells had a nice drive down the wall,” he said.

“Dazzer (Rock assistant coach James Daschuk) has gone over D-man activation with us a bunch of times and I slipped into the middle and put the puck over the goalie’s glove into the top right corner.”

Decades from now when Tenzin Nyman tells his grandkids about his first Junior ‘A’ goal he might be tempted to describe it as an end-to-end rush, in which he deked the goalie.

“For sure, through the legs and everything, I will add that in there,” he said.

It took Tenzin Nyman 25 games to net his first Junior ‘A’ goal, but he was more concerned with his play on the other side of the puck.

“Honestly, I was more concerned with the defensive game plan, playing a simple game and just trying to do my part,” he said.

“I didn’t want to step out of my comfort zone until I had the confidence, play a solid D game and let what happens happen.”

Having said that, asked which he was more proud of Tuesday night, scoring his first Junior ‘A’ goal or helping his team earn another shutout, Tenzin Nyman said, “Honestly, I am going to have to be a little selfish here. I know Brownie (Rock goalie Jacob Brown) on the back end can lock us up pretty good and it had been weighing on me a bit to get my first goal.

“Finally, tonight was the night. I couldn’t be more happy.”

Tenzin Nyman isn’t sure if he and older brother Kenyon Nyman, the NOJHL’s leading scorer among D-men, have ever scored goals in the same hockey game before.

“I think it was a first,” he said.

“We play Junior ‘A’ lacrosse together and we have scored in the same game, but other than that I don’t think it has ever happened.”

Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was happy his squad didn’t lapse into too many bad habits once the score began to build in his team’s favour.

“We had better shot selection and we were executing a little bit better,” he said.

“Games like this, you aren’t really concerned about our side of the scoreboard. You have to play for something more than yourself sometimes and that’s the goaltender’s shutout, team GAA (goals against average).

“It was a good job keeping that doughnut up there for Brownie. Says a lot about him as a young goaltender and it says a lot about our team defence.”

On the offensive side of the puck, the coach was happy to see the Rock get goals from seven different players in the contest.

“The expectations of some of the kids coming in and playing lower in the lineup, they all want to score right away and it is not always easy, Junior ‘A’ hockey is not easy,” Perry said.

“You see how well Lucas Lowe has developed here as a player. He is starting to score and he is figuring out those areas, figuring out his shot and when he can get it off, the areas he has to go to and how hard he has to work consistently.

“He and Evan Grigor are figuring it out. They are playing fantastic hockey and I am super happy for them.”

Hayden Rynard is another young player who is still searching for his first Junior ‘A’ goal, but he coach is confident it will come sooner rather than later — although putting the puck in the net isn’t his many role with the squad.

“He might put pressure on himself to score goals, but we expect him to be good on the penalty kill, good in his own end and give us quality minutes, structurally,” Perry said.

“He is such a smart hockey player and he does so much for us, contributes so much to our team play, by being in the right spots.”

The coach was also happy to see Tenzin Nyman net his first Junior ‘A’ goal.

“He did a great job activating into the high slot,” Perry said.

“It is something we work on a lot to keep teams on their heels. We did it a couple of times. Tenzin did it first and then Kenyon kind of stole his thunder and did it on the other side of the ice.

“I am super happy for him. He is a kid who shows up every day, keeps his head down, keeps his feet moving, does his work, does his job.

“It’s always, ‘yes, sir,’ looks you in the eye, takes criticism well, doesn’t complain.

“I thought Nicholas Moore played a really good game tonight, too.”

The coach fully expects the Crunch to a determined foe when the Rock play them at the Tim Horton Event Centre Friday night.

“We will prepare for it just like we prepare for any other game,” Perry said.

“They have been winning games and they played Sudbury really tight, they played Hearst really tight, they played Powassan really tight.”

Brown stopped all 12 shots he faced to record his fourth shutout of the season, tying him with Blind River Beavers netminder Charlie Burns for the NOJHL lead, and earn his seventh win of the season.

Brown also lowered his NOJHL-lead goals against average to 1.70 and raised his save percentage to .924 — third best in the NOJHL behind Burns, .929, and his Rock teammate Patrick Boivin, .0926.

Ouellet, who stopped 24 of the 32 shots the Rock directed his way during his 47:41 of work, was tagged with the loss.

Dubinsky, blocked five of the six shots he faced in his 12:19 of relief.

NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Harroun, Lowe and Tenzin Nyman … The Rock did not dress forwards Ethan Pool (upper-body injury) and Justin Charette (upper-body injury), as well as blue-liner Chase Longhurst (upper-body injury) … The Rock went 2-4 on the power play, while the Crunch were 0-2 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 485 … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they travel to Cochrane for a game against the Crunch at the Tim Horton Event Centre, at 7 p.m. The next home game will be on Tuesday, Dec. 13, when they host the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena, at 7 p.m.

“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel