Timmins Rock forward Matteo Paradiso falls backwards after tripping over the outstretched right pad of Hearst Lumberjacks goalie Jack Helkie during the first period of Tuesday night’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. The Lumberjacks knocked off the Rock 5-2, to pull within six points of second place in the NOJHL standings. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
The Timmins Rock remain three points out of the top spot in the NOJHL standings, although they have a pair of games in hand on the Greater Sudbury Cubs
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
The Timmins Rock dropped a costly 5-2 decision to their arch rivals, the Hearst Lumberjacks, at the McIntyre Arena, Tuesday night.
Winners of 23 of their past 24 games heading into the contest, the Rock (29-7-0-1) had an opportunity to pull within a single point of the NOJHL-leading Greater Sudbury Cubs (29-6-2-2) had they collected the two points against the Lumberjacks.
Instead, the Rock remain three points out of the top spot in the league standings, although they have a pair of games in hand on the Cubs.
The third-place Lumberjacks (25-8-0-3), who trail the Rock by six points but have a game in hand, were clearly the hungrier team, Tuesday night.
“I didn’t like any of it, actually,” said Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry, when asked what he liked and didn’t like about the contest.
“We just weren’t ready. We weren’t sharp, we weren’t good. We weren’t ready to go. We weren’t physically engaged. It was just another bleeping game for us.
“Nobody took it seriously. We passed up a really good opportunity to move closer to first place. If we had won tonight, we would have been one game out of first place.”
They outshot the Rock 10-7 in the opening period and took a 1-0 lead with 58 seconds remaining in the frame when Luc Warner scored his ninth goal of the season.
Ty McKay’s 28th tally of the campaign five-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame added to the Lumberjacks advantage.
The Rock finally got on the scoreboard 10 minutes later when Edan Etheridge netted his fifth goal of the season.
Blue-liner Julien Trudel’s seventh goal of the campaign early in the third period put the Lumberjacks up 3-1.
The Rock were able to cut into that lead five minutes later, as Lucas Lowe netted a power-play marker, his eighth goal of the season, on a nice feed from Kaeden McArthur.
But any hopes Rock fans had of a come-from-behind victory were snuffed out when Hunter Kelso beat Rock goalie Ayden Mullen for his sixth goal of the season.
“As bad as we had played, it was a 3-2 hockey game and we needed to get a save on that fourth goal,” Perry said.
“It killed us.”
And McKay put the icing on the cake when he netted his second goal of the game and 29th of the season to make the final 5-2 in favour of the Lumberjacks.
Perry was clearly frustrated with the outcome of Tuesday night’s contest.
“We just needed somebody, one line to step up and give us something, but we just didn’t have it,” he said.
That being said, the coach did manage to single out a few players for a little extra praise.
“I thought (Matteo) Paradiso played hard, I thought (Ashton) Beriana played hard, I thought Etheridge played hard, for the most part, but it was just not enough.
“It was just a bad night. It happens. You show up, you don’t play good, you are going to get beat. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just there was a lot at stake.
“It stings a bit, obviously losing to Hearst stings a bit. We beat them four times in a row, so eventually the shoe was going to fall, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance.”
The Rock were missing one of the team’s top snipers, as forward Diego Da Silva served the second game of a three-game suspension he picked up during Friday night’s 6-5 overtime win over the Soo Thunderbirds.
In addition, forward Maxfeld Shin had to be helped off the ice after suffering an upper-body injury in the second period and he did not return.
“It didn’t look good, but I don’t have an update on it yet,” Perry said.
Rock forward Lucas Lowe and Lumberjacks forward Cameron Menard were ejected from the contest with 1:06 remaining on the clock after they were both assessed five-minute majors for fighting, game misconducts and gross misconducts for illegal equipment.
With a two-game road trip set to start on Friday, Perry does not plan to dwell on Tuesday night’s defeat.
“We got beat, it happens, we have got to move forward to get ready for the next one, but we have got to figure out what kind of hockey club we want to be,” he said.
“It is not enough to just show up at 70 percent and expect to win games.
Lumberjacks goalie Jack Helkie, who turned aside 33 of the 35 shots the Rock directed his way, picked up his 11th win of the season.
Mullen, who stopped 30 of the 35 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were McKay (two goals, one assist), Warner (one goal, one assist) and Etheridge (one goal) … The Rock went 1-6 on the power play, while the Lumberjacks were 0-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 794 … The Rock will hit the road for a game against the Voodoos in Powassan, on Friday, at 7 p.m., and a contest against the Rapids in French River, on Saturday, at 7 p.m.
