GALLERY: Ring nets five goals, as Rock top Crunch in Iroquois Falls

Timmins Rock forward Nolan Ring, No. 93, gets congratulated by teammates, from left, Tenzin Nyman, Kenyon Nyman, Nicolas Pigeon and Brady Harroun after scoring his fourth goal during the third period of Friday night’s NOJHL contest at the Jus Jordan Arena in Iroquois Falls. Ring would go on to add a fifth goal, as the Rock blanked the Cochrane Crunch 6-0 to clinch top spot in the East Division standings. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS

Nolan Ring continued to make the most of his time on the Timmins Rock’s top line Friday night at the Jus Jordan Arena, scoring five goals in his team’s 6-0 win over the Cochrane Crunch.


Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network


IROQUOIS FALLS — Nolan Ring continued to make the most of his time on the Timmins Rock’s top line Friday night at the Jus Jordan Arena, scoring five goals in his team’s 6-0 win over the Cochrane Crunch.

The red-hot Ring now has nine goals in his past five games and 25 on the season.

Ring’s offensive outburst also helped linemate Nicolas Pigeon reach the 100-point mark on the season.

Equally as important as the individual milestones for Ring and Pigeon is the fact the Rock’s win, combined with the Hearst Lumberjacks 7-5 loss to the Eagles in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., allowed then to clinch top spot in the NOJHL’s East Division standings.

Following Friday night’s action, the Rock (43-7-3-2) are nine points up on the Lumberjacks (40-12-2-0) and Hearst has just four games remaining in their regular-season schedule.

The Rock also hold a one-point lead over the West Division’s Greater Sudbury Cubs (44-10-2-0) in the battle for the NOJHL’s overall standings and they have a game in hand.

It took 15:56 for the Rock to get on the scoreboard Friday night at the Jus Jordan Arena, with Ring netting the first of his five markers, a tally that would stand up to be the game-winning goal.

Ring added his second tally of the night, a power-play marker, 7:40 into the middle frame.

Affiliate player Tyson Scott then scored the first goal of his NOJHL career six-and-a-half minutes later.

The Rock took a 3-0 advantage into the dressing room for the second intermission.

Ring then completed his hat-trick 4:45 into the third period.

Then, 28 seconds later, he added his fourth goal of the night and exactly six minutes after that closed out the scoring with his fifth tally.

Rock goalie Jacob Brown stopped all 18 shots he faced to earn his NOJHL-leading seventh shutout of the season, while recording his 18th victory of the campaign.

Crunch goalie Jake Dubinsky, who turned aside 67 of the 73 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.

NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Ring, Dubinsky and Rock forward Brady Harroun (two assists) … The Rock went 1-5 on the power play, while the Crunch were 0-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Jus Jordan Arena was 1,003 … Friday night’s other action saw the Thunderbirds triple the Powassan Voodoos 9-3 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., the Red Wings blank the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 6-0 in Elliot Lake and the Greater Sudbury Cubs top the Paper Kings 5-3 in Espanola … The Rock will take on the Rapids in French River on Saturday night. The next home game will see the Rock host the Blind River Beavers at the McIntyre Arena on Friday, at 7:30 p.m.