Timmins Rock goalie Ayden Mullen makes a blocker save on a shot off the stick of Greater Sudbury Cubs blue-liner Nate Lazarus during the third period of Game 1 of the best-of-seven NOJHL final at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, Thursday night. Lazarus had a goal and an assist to help the Cubs beat the Rock 9-3 and take a 1-0 lead in the series. Photo by CALEIGH FERA /POINTS NORTH MEDIA/FOR NOJHL NETWORK
Frédéric Cousineau, arguably the best goalie in the NOJHL, clearly had an off night, giving up five goals on 32 shots in 40 minutes of action
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
GREATER SUDBURY — The Timmins Rock dropped a 9-3 decision to the Cubs in Game 1 of the NOJHL final at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex, Thursday night.
Despite the one-sided outcome, the Rock’s “perfectionist” coach and general manager Brandon Perry felt his squad outplayed their hosts — an assertion backed up to some degree by the fact Timmins outshot Greater Sudbury 47-42.
“We just needed to get a save and we couldn’t get one tonight,” he said.
Frédéric Cousineau, arguably the best goalie in the NOJHL, clearly had an off night, giving up five goals on 32 shots in 40 minutes of action, and his understudy, Ayden Mullen, who was beaten four times on 10 shots, didn’t fare any better.
“He (Cousineau) just wasn’t sharp. He made some bad decisions in there and he just couldn’t stop the puck. We put Mulley in for the third period and things got worse.”
Rock are confident ahead of NOJHL Finals
Beating the Cubs, who had the best record in the NOJHL during the regular season and entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed, is no easy task at the best of time, but clearly impossible if your goaltending isn’t up to the challenge.
“It is just simple, we did not get a save, that’s it,” Perry said. “Other than three of them, there wasn’t a good goal. The other six should all have been stopped.
“That was it. We didn’t play a bad game. We outshot them. We scored three power-play goals. Their goalie (Iain Wintle) stopped everything, ours didn’t. That was basically it.
“Sure, detail wise we need to clean some stuff up in the neutral zone and on the penalty kill, but other than that, we didn’t play our best game but we played a good road game, we just didn’t get a save.”
Things actually got off to a positive start for the Rock, as Kaeden McArthur’s power-play marker, his 12th goal of the playoffs, gave them a 1-0 lead 12:06 into the opening period.
But the Cubs tied things up and then took the lead before the first intermission, as both Noah Aboflan and Grant Booth netted their third goals of the post season.
And three unanswered second-period markers allowed them to expand their advantage to 5-1.
Briir Long netted the first of his two goals in the game and his seventh of the playoffs just 44 seconds into the frame.
Caden Dubreuil followed with a shorthanded marker, his fourth goal of the post season, and Owen King added a power-play tally, his sixth goal of the playoffs.
The Rock staged a bit of a rally early in the third period, as they netted a pair of power-play markers before the frame was three minutes old.
Thomas Beard accounted for the first of those tallies, as he scored his fifth goal of the post season 26 seconds into the frame.
Captain Braedyn Cyr then followed with his fifth goal of the playoffs to cut the Cubs lead to 5-3.
That would be as close as the Rock would come to getting back on even terms, however, as the Cubs reeled off four-straight goals to break things wide open.
The back-breaker was Long’s second goal of the game and eighth of the post season, netted just 30 seconds after Cyr’s tally.
Booth followed with his second goal of the game and fourth of the playoffs.
Blue-liners Nate Lazarus and Kyle Navarro both added their first goals of the post season, to close out the scoring.
Heading to Greater Sudbury, the Rock’s goal was to win at least one of the first two games of the series — something they can still accomplish with a victory in Game 2.
“We just have to do a better job and keep pucks out of our net,” Perry said. “It is the first (team) to four (wins), not the first one (that wins a series).”
The coach’s impressions of the Cubs from Game 1 pretty much reinforced what the Rock were expecting heading into the series.
“They are fast and they are skilled,” Perry said. “We have to do a way better job against them in Game 2, that’s it, that’s all.”
The Cubs have few weaknesses, which would suggest there is only one way to beat them.
“You have to play your best hockey to beat that team,” Perry said.
Perry opted not to single out any of his Rock players for extra praise following the contest.
“Not really, no,” he said. “We were good, we were good all over but we were slow to pucks and we had bad gaps off the O (offensive) zone blue-line and penalty kill was letting seam passes through over and over.
“Those are the three things we are going to clean up and focus on. Other than that, we had our chances. It was a 5-1 hockey game and we scored two goals, to make it 5-3 in the third. We played better than them in the third, but every shot they took went in.”
Clearly the best strategy for beating the Cubs is playing with a lead, or at least a tie score, as opposed to trying to play catch-up hockey the entire game.
“The goals just can’t go in,” Perry said. “The ones that went in just can’t go in, plain and simple, there were about six of them that just can’t go in if you want to win at this time of year. There is no magic wand. Their guy made more saves than our guys, that was basically the story of the game.”
Regardless of how well Cousineau did or didn’t play in Game 1, there is no question about who the Rock will turn to in net for Game 2 of the series.
“He is going back in there,” Perry confirmed. “He will be fine.”
It remains to be seen, however, if McArthur will be able to answer the bell for Game 2 of the series.
“McArthur, upper-body,” Perry said, when asked if the Rock have any fresh injury concerns to worry about heading into Game 2. “It is disappointing. He is a big piece of our offence.”
The coach was not in a position to say following Thursday’s game if the Rock’s leading goal scorer in the playoffs is day-to-day or dealing with something more long term.
“We will get him evaluated and see how he feels in the morning,” Perry said.
The Rock were already without one-third of their top line, Lucas Lowe (lower-body, day-to-day), in Game 1, so if McArthur is unable to play, only Maxx Hamelin — who leads the NOJHL in playoff scoring — might need two new line-mates for Game 2.
Wintle, who turned aside 44 of the 47 shots the Rock directed his way, picked up his seventh win of the playoffs.
Cousineau, who blocked 27 of the 32 shots he faced in his 40 minutes of action, was tagged with the loss.
Mullen stopped six of the 10 shots he faced in his 20 minutes of relief work.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Long (two goals, four assists), Booth (two goals, one assist) and Lazarus (one goal, one assist) … The Rock went 3-5 on the power play, but gave up a shorthanded marker, while the Cubs were 1-2 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex was 982. The two teams will face off for Game 2 of the series, on Friday, at 7:05 p.m. Game 3 will be played at the McIntyre Arena, on Tuesday, at 7:05 p.m.
