Timmins Rock blue-liner Brady Bouchard stands firm as Hearst Lumberjacks forward Mathieu Comeau attempts to stickhandle around him during Saturday night’s NOJHL contest at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre. The Lumberjacks defeated the Rock 4-1 to move past them and into second place in the NOJHL standings. Photo by NORTHERN LIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHY /NOJHL Network
All good things must come to an end and the Timmins Rock’s 56-game winning streak against the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners proved to be no exception to that rule
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
On Jan. 19, the Timmins Rock were riding a 21-game winning streak and it seemed like they would never lose another hockey game.
Since that time, they have gone 3-6-0-1 and their climb to top spot in the NOJHL standings has stalled, as they have literally fallen off a cliff.
Head coach and general manager Brandon Perry and his staff are desperately trying to find a solution to the woes that saw the Rock drop a 5-4 overtime decision to the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake, Friday night, and a 4-1 regulation decision to the Lumberjacks in Hearst Saturday night.
“We have got to score, that’s all we have got to do,” he said, following Saturday night’s setback.
“That’s it, we just have to score.”
Clearly, any team’s chances of winning an NOJHL contest are not great when it can muster only one goal, especially against a quality opponent like the Lumberjacks — a team that moved past them in the standings and still has a pair of games in hand.
Perry couldn’t even find any solace in the fact the Rock were at least able to salvage a single point during Friday night’s loss to the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake.
“No, there was no moral victory in Kirkland Lake,” he said. “It is embarrassing losing to that team. We had the game, but their goalie made some big saves. We fell asleep and made some bad decisions on the power play and they scored a shorthanded goal. That was it, it was all she wrote. We went up 2-0 and their goalie stood on his head the rest of the game and we didn’t get a save on our end.”
The Rock were beaten Friday night by affiliate goaltender Logan Coates, of the GNU18L’s North Bay U18 Trappers, who was making his NOJHL debut with the Gold Miners.
“It is frustrating every night,” Perry said. “We outshoot Hearst 40-24 (Feb. 6) on the road and we lose. We go to I.F. (Iroquois Falls) and we outshoot them 52-19 and we lose. The opposition goalies play great both nights. We go to K.L. and their (affiliate) goalie plays great and we come here tonight, in Hearst, and their goalie plays great.
“When is our goalie going to play like that? It is just every night. Their goalies stand on their head against us and we can’t buy a goal. We are begging for a save and we can’t buy a goal.”
Maxx Hamelin, who had three goals in the two weekend losses, is one of the few Rock forwards who has been putting the puck in the net.
“He is starting to score, which is nice, but we need more guys to get on the same page and start doing that, as well,” Perry said.
Following a scoreless first period, the Lumberjacks and Rock exchanged goals in the first three minutes of the middle frame, Saturday night, with Luc Warner’s 14th goal of the season staking the home side to the early advantage and Hamelin’s 11th tally of the campaign tying things up.
Mavrik Chan-Miguel’s power-play marker, his first of two goals on the night and 12th of the season, put the Lumberjacks in front 2-1 heading to the second intermission. That tally would stand up to be the game-winning marker.
Chan-Miguel then doubled down six minutes into the third period, as he netted his second goal of the night and 13th of the season.
The Rock pulled goalie Ayden Mullen in favour of an extra attacker in the game’s final few minutes, but the move backfired when Dylan Garvin deposited the puck into the empty Timmins net for his fifth goal of the season, making the final 4-1 in favour of the Lumberjacks.
“We played good again, we played good, that’s the frustrating part,” Perry said, when asked to sum up how things went at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre, Saturday night.
“We played a good road game. We just made the stupidest mistakes at the stupidest times and the puck always ended up in our net. We made three mistakes and we were down 3-1.
“We are just going through it right now. It is extremely frustrating. It is hard, as a coach, to sit here and think of the game as a whole, as frustrated as I am, because the team played really good.”
While it has not produced an end to the slump yet, Perry did see some positives on the ice, Saturday night.
“Our power play was a lot better tonight than it was in our last three games, puck movement wise,” he said. “We had some really good looks, but their goalie made some big saves. It is just extremely frustrating now, because it is not an effort thing, or a structural thing.
“It is just, I don’t know, I don’t even know what it is.”
The Rock’s inability to put the puck in the net on the weekend was not helped by the fact the team’s leading goal scorer and leading point collector, Kaeden McArthur (37, 31-32-63, 14), missed both games (lower-body injury).
“He got hurt in practice on Thursday,” Perry said.
Jack Helkie, who turned aside 28 of the 29 shots the Rock directed his way, picked up his 13th win of the season and fifth since being acquired by the Lumberjacks.
Mullen, who stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
GOLD MINERS 5 ROCK 4 OT
All good things must come to an end and the Rock’s 56-game winning streak against the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners proved to be no exception to that rule.
The Gold Miners rallied from a two-goal deficit and two one-goal deficits to knock off the Rock 5-4 in overtime at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex, Friday night.
Things started out well for the Rock, as Maxx Hamelin’s ninth and 10th goals of the season staked them to a 2-0 lead.
But Tysen Andersen’s power-play marker with just 43 seconds remaining in the opening period cut that advantage in half.
Former Rock forward Mavrick Boucher’s power-play marker, his seven tally of the campaign tied things up for the Gold Miners midway through the middle frame.
Captain Braedyn Cyr’s power-play marker, his sixth goal of the season, saw the Rock reclaim the lead, 3-2, three minutes into the third period.
Once again, the Gold Miners had an answer, with Ryland Harvey netting his third goal of the campaign, seven-and-a-half minutes later.
The Rock reclaimed the lead just over a minute later, however, as Nolan Masson scored his fifth goal of the season.
But Owen Kelly’s shorthanded tally, his fifth goal of the season, with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation tied things up, at 4-4, and forced overtime.
Daniel Rusu delivered the streak-breaking, game-winning tally, his sixth goal of the season, 1:16 into the extra frame — six seconds after the expiry of Rock blue-liner Brady Bouchard’s two-minute minor for interference, taking with just 50 seconds remaining in the third period.
Gold Miners goalie Logan Coates turned aside 30 of the 34 shots the Rock directed his way to his first win in his first start for Kirkland Lake.
Rock goalie Virgil Sausset Plateaux, who blocked 19 of the 24 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Saturday night’s contest were Helkie (28 saves), Chan-Miguel (two goals, two assists) and Garvin (one goal). Friday night, Coates (30 saves), Rusu (one goal) and Hamelin (two goals) were chosen … The Rock went 0-4 on the power play Saturday night, while the Lumberjacks were 1-6 with the man advantage. Friday night, the Rock went 1-4 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 2-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre Saturday night was 592, while 270 fans attended Friday night’s game at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex … Saturday night’s other action saw the Voodoos thump the French River Rapids 12-2 in Powassan, the Thunderbirds edge the Blind River Beavers 4-3 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and the Paper Kings top the Soo Eagles 5-2 in Espanola … The Rock will return to action on Monday when they host the Hearst Lumberjacks at the McIntyre Arena, at 2 p.m.
