Timmins Rock goalie Frédéric Cousineau gets his catching glove down in time to smoother a rebound before a Soo Thunderbirds forward can pounce on it during the first period of Game 5 of their NOJHL quarterfinal series at the McIntyre Arena, Friday night. Cousineau made 38 saves to backstop the Rock to a 7-1 win and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
The Rock’s special teams were indeed special, Friday night, with the power play producing three goals on five opportunities and the penalty kill limiting the Thunderbirds to just the one goal in six chances
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
The Timmins Rock got stellar goaltending from Frédéric Cousineau and balanced scoring en route to a 7-1 win over the Soo Thunderbirds in Game 5 of their NOJHL quarterfinal series at the McIntyre Arena, Friday night.
Cousineau stopped 38 of the 39 shots he faced to help the Rock take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and push the Thunderbirds to the brink of elimination.
“I thought we had a slow start, but kind of got rolling in the second and third periods,” said Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry.
“We took too many penalties in the second period, but that’s on us. We needed to do a better job at that, but it was a solid night, and a good team win.”
GM4: Timmins Rock take down Thunderbirds in double overtime
The Rock’s special teams were indeed special, Friday night, with the power play producing three goals on five opportunities and the penalty kill limiting the Thunderbirds to just the one goal in six chances.
Kaeden McArthur got the puck rolling when he netted a power-play marker, his fourth goal of the playoffs, with just over three minutes remaining in the opening period.
Affiliate player Victor Hourtouat, who sat out the first three games of the series and then scored in his playoff debut in Game 4 in Sault Ste. Marie, on Wednesday, then netted his second goal six-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame.
That goal would stand up to be the game-winning marker.
GM3: Thunderbirds hold on to edge Timmins Rock in Soo
Thomas Beard kept the puck rolling five minutes later when he scored a power-play marker, his second goal of the playoffs.
That signaled the end of Thunderbirds starting goalie Nathan Maguire’s night, as he got the hook with Ryan Hicks coming on in relief.
It would not matter, however, as Ryan Armitage then added his second goal of the playoffs to put the Rock in front 4-0.
The Thunderbirds finally broke through with just under two minutes remaining in the second period when Aiden Atkinson netted a power-play marker, his third goal of the playoffs.
And the Thunderbirds had an excellent opportunity to close the gap even further, as they had a two-man advantage to end the frame that carried over into the third period.
But the Rock penalty kill — with Cousineau leading the way — shut the door.
GM2: Timmins Rock roll over Thunderbirds to even series at 1-1
“He was fantastic tonight,” Perry said. “Our (penalty) killers did a great job, also, but Freddy has just been dialed in.”
The Rock continued to roll in the third period, adding to their offensive totals and putting the game out of reach.
Maxx Hamelin netted his fourth and fifth goals of the playoffs in a 5:46 span.
Captain Braedyn Cyr then chipped in with a power-play marker, his third goal of the playoffs to make the final 7-1 in favour of the Rock.
Perry was once again impressed with what he saw from Hourtouat, Friday night.
“It’s a good story, right,” he said. “He went down to Junior ‘C’ got a chance to play a lot, then came back up to us, played three of the last four (regular-season games) and then sat out the first three games of the series.
“He got his chance in Game 4 and he made an impact and then he made an impact again tonight. That’s all you want from young guys is for them to learn and develop.”
GM1: Soo Thunderbirds take down Timmins Rock in overtime
Hourtouat was all smiles after Friday night’s victory, but it was the W, not his goal, that had him in a good mood.
“The team is playing great and I just got a couple of lucky bounces,” he said. “I was just happy to see them go in.”
Hourtouat described how the play developed for his game-winning goal in Game 5.
“I got out of the (penalty) box and got a stretch pass and I tried to make a pass to K-Mac (McArthur), but it didn’t work out, so I just rubbed the guy out on the boards.
“Then, I attacked the middle and it was open so I shot the puck and it went in low blocker.”
Hourtouat was on a line with Maxfeld Shin and Matteo Paradiso, a pair of offensively gifted forwards, Friday night.
“We were just getting pucks out of our own end, not messing around at the blue-line too much and we worked really hard on the forecheck,” he said, when asked what made the unit so effective.
“The systems coach Perry put in place work. We just have to execute them with high intensity to have success.”
Hourtouat would love to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games and maybe even add a series-clinching goal to his resume, but his only focus in Game 6 is going to be trying to help the Rock earn another victory.
“I just want to help the team win,” he said. “Hopefully, we have a lot more games to win before we reach our goal (an NOJHL championship).”
There was no shortage of other Rock players who caught their coach’s eye in a positive light, Friday night.
“Thomas (Beard) was great tonight,” Perry said. “Thomas is great every night. He is my guy.”
The Rock blue-line got a boost from the return of Matthew Kim from an upper-body injury, Friday night.
“Cyr played great tonight and it was nice to have some healthy bodies in there,” Perry said. “It was great to see Kim and (Zach) Secord back out there. It was awesome.”
With Game 5 in the books, Perry stressed the Rock are now focused on Game 6.
“We are going to clean up what we didn’t like tonight, get on the bus, go to the Soo and take care of business.”
Stuff he didn’t like?
“There’s stuff,” Perry said. “I am a hard man to please.”
Cousineau, who stopped 38 of the 39 shots he faced, picked up his third win of the playoffs.
Maguire, who turned aside 20 of the 23 shots the Rock directed his way during his 31:34 in the Thunderbirds net, was tagged with the loss.
Hicks blocked 10 of the 14 shots he faced during his 28:26 of relief work.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Cousineau (38 saves, win), McArthur (one goal, three assists) and Hamelin (two goals, one assist) … The Rock went 3-5 on the power play, while the Thunderbirds were 1-6 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 968 … The Soo Eagles four-game sweep of the Powassan Voodoos has been confirmed after both the NOJHL and the NOHA turned down a protest of the game-winning overtime goal in Game 4 of the series … The Rock will take on the Thunderbirds in Game 6 of their series at the John Rhodes Community Centre, on Sunday, at 7 p.m.
