Timmins Rock players, from left, Braedyn Cyr, Zach Secord, Evan Katic and Maxfeld Shin celebrate Katic’s first-period goal against the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL game at the McIntyre Arena. The Rock went on to defeat the Gold Miners 4-1, earning their fourth-straight victory. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
It was the Timmins Rock’s 54th-consecutive regular-season victory over the Gold Miners, a streak that began on Jan. 15, 2019
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
Kaeden McArthur scored a pair of goals to help lead the Timmins Rock to a 4-1 win over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena, Sunday afternoon.
It was the fourth-straight win for the sixth-place Rock (10-5-0-1) as they continue their climb up the NOJHL standings, while the 10th-place Gold Miners now sit at 5-10-0-2.
In a statistic the Gold Miners — and their fans — would likely just as soon forget it was the Rock’s 54th-consecutive regular-season victory over the Gold Miners, a streak that began on Jan. 15, 2019.
Despite the victory, coach and general manager Brandon Perry was far from happy with what he saw from atop the Rock bench Sunday afternoon.
“Obviously, I am not concerned with how the other team plays, I am more concerned with how we play, but that’s a great way to describe it,” he said, when it was suggested neither team played particularly well, but that maybe the Rock played a little less badly.
“We weren’t very good today. Our details were lacking. Sure, we had our chances, but we won this game because we had better players, not because we played together, as a team.”
McArthur kicked off a flurry of first-period action when he scored his eighth goal of the season with less than five minutes remaining in the opening period.
But it took the Gold Miners just 38 seconds to net the equalizer, as Matthew Neuman directed a centring pass past Rock goalie Ayden Mullen from in tight for his second goal of the campaign.
Less than two minutes later, Ryan Armitage scored what would prove to be the game-winning marker, his fourth goal of the season.
“The puck just kind of went up to the D and I was battling in the corner,” he said. “I just wanted to drive the net hard and see if I could make a play on it with the D shooting the puck and I got a stick on it and it found the back of the net.”
Evan Katic then provided a little insurance when he netted his third goal of the campaign just 39 seconds after the Rock had retaken the lead.
The Rock took that 3-1 lead into the first intermission and then the second intermission, as well, following a scoreless second period.
It looked like that might be the final score, but McArthur connected for a power-play marker, his second goal of the night and ninth of the season, with just 24 seconds remaining in regulation.
Given his earlier comments, it wasn’t too surprising Perry had difficulty identifying many Rock players who excelled in Sunday afternoon’s contest.
“I thought our goalie (Mullen) played fantastic and I thought our D (Zach Secord, Jack Quevillon, Braedyn Cyr, Matthew Kim, William Lobanov) were okay,” he said.
“We gave up a lot (of chances). Our forwards were just okay. I don’t know. There just wasn’t good energy, a lot of negativity. It was just one of those games.
“Some wins feel like losses. I am certainly happy with the two points, but I didn’t like the way we handled ourselves.”
Perry doesn’t feel the fact the Rock have not lost to the Gold Miners in 54 games was a factor in their lackluster effort Sunday afternoon.
“There is a majority of guys in our dressing room who don’t know that stat,” he said. “Some guys do, but I don’t think that matters. We won 10-2 (in Kirkland Lake on Oct. 26) and our guys wanted to win 10-2 again but we cheated the game and played loose and didn’t work as hard.
“I bet you three-quarters of our team didn’t have a hit tonight. We just thought it was going to be easy. It’s not that we didn’t work hard in certain areas, we just thought they all (shots) should go in, but that’s hockey. Sometimes, it is harder to put them in. When they weren’t going in, we got extremely frustrated.”
While Armitage scored the game-winning goal, he was just as proud of his efforts on the penalty kill Sunday afternoon.
“I was mainly out there killing penalties with Evan Katic,” he said. “He is a great young player and I love being out there killing penalties with him. I think we complement each other well. We have a passion for the penalty kill and we don’t like to give the other team an inch.”
Armitage increased his goal total to 16 in 2024-25, up from the nine he scored in his first full season in the NOJHL but he hasn’t set any targets for this campaign.
“It just comes down to how many games we win,” he said. “Obviously, I enjoy scoring goals and picking up assists, points are always great, but that may not be my primary role and I accept that. I love killing penalties and I enjoy doing whatever I can to ensure team success.
“We are looking to go all the way this year and win an NOJHL championship.”
Mullen, who stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced, earned his fourth win of the season for the Rock.
Gold Miners goalie Glen McInnes, who turned aside 37 of the 41 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Armitage, Katic and McInnes … The Rock went 1-5 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 0-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 665 … Sunday’s other action saw the Beavers blank the Powassan Voodoos 1-0 in overtime in Blind River and Espanola Paper Kings edge the Thunderbirds 5-4 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. … The Rock will return to action when they take on the Lumberjacks at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre in Hearst on Friday, at 7 p.m.
