Photos: Helene Rancourt
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
BLIND RIVER — The Timmins Rock wrapped up a lost weekend by dropping a 7-4 decision to the Beavers at the Community Centre Saturday night.
On Friday night, the Paper Kings doubled up the Rock 6-3 at the Regional Recreation Complex in Espanola.
Neither outcome pleased Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry, who saw his club fall to 3-4-1-0 on the young season.
Certainly not the start fans had been hoping for from the defending NOJHL champions, with a dozen returning veterans on their roster.
“It is just so many things,” Perry said, when asked to describe what went wrong during the two-game road trip.
“I don’t even know where to start. We lack professionalism and we lack compete. We lack commitment, we can’t commit to our systems, we can’t commit to doing things right, we can’t commit to doing things hard, the way we want things done.
“We just, we lack a lot, we turn pucks over, we don’t know how to backcheck, we don’t know how to track and we can’t get any saves.”
The Rock were outshot 18-10 in the opening 20 minutes of play Saturday night and it was the Beavers who found the back of the net first.
Sergy Suschenko’s first goal of the season gave Blind River a 1-0 lead 6:25 into the frame.
Six minutes later, the Rock got back on even terms thanks to Harry Clark’s unassisted shorthanded marker, his second goal of the season.
The, four minutes later, Hayden Rynard’s first goal of the season, also a shorthanded marker, gave the Rock their only lead of the night, 2-1.
It took the Beavers just over two minutes to tie things back up, however, as Jack Robinson scored his fourth goal of the season.
And Michael Gallagher’s first of three-straight goals, his sixth tally of the season, with 34 seconds remaining on the clock put the Beavers back in front, 3-2, before the first intermission.
Gallagher’s second goal of night and seventh of the season, 10:43 into the middle frame, chased Rock starting goalie Patrick Boivin from the net, with Dryden Riley coming on in relief.
Unfazed, Gallagher completed his natural hat-trick three minutes later, depositing his eighth goal of the season into the net behind the new Rock goalie.
And Robinson added his second goal of the game and fifth tally of the season, a power-play marker to increase the Beavers lead to 6-2.
The Rock were able to get one of those goals back before the second intermission, with blue-liner Elijah Pool netting the first goal of his NOJHL career, also a power-play marker.
Bryce Burnett’s second goal of the season put the Beavers up 7-3 1:01 into the third period.
Rock forward Brant Romaniuk then closed out the scoring when he netted his first goal of the season, also a power-play marker, just past the midway point in the frame.
The Rock coach was unable to come up with many positives from Saturday night’s setback.
“It’s just not good when your best players play the way they did,” Perry said.
“The guys who are supposed to lead the way, do things right, just wouldn’t do it. It’s just not good.
“I thought some of our young guys stepped up today, showed a little bit, but we just have a bunch of children on our team. They think if they come off the ice and slash their stick, scream and yell, shows me they care.
“In reality, it doesn’t. They have 45 seconds, whatever a shift length is, right there, when they are on the ice to show me and their teammates that they care.”
The two teams the Rock played on the weekend are among the best squads in the West Division, but the coach wasn’t about to use that as an excuse.
“I just know we are not good enough right now,” Perry said.
“We played two good teams this weekend, yes, but I was under the impression we were a good team, that wanted to compete, and we certainly are not that, but it starts with me. I have got to take a look in the mirror.”
So, is it a matter of adjusting the system to fit the personnel the team has, or are different players needed to play within the Rock system?
“It is hard to tell, if they don’t do it right,” Perry said.
“How do you know if it works or not? It’s just decisions we are making. It has nothing to do with the system. You have a puck on your stick and there is nobody around you and you pass it directly to the other team, that’s not a system thing.
“You turn the puck over at the offensive blue-line and then you backcheck to the puck instead of the seam, or pick up a guy and he is left alone for a backdoor tap in, that’s not a systems thing.
“It is lack of commitment to the system, it’s a lack of discipline. I think discipline is probably the biggest word you could use, not so much discipline where we are taking penalties, certainly there are some issues with that, but discipline in the system.
“When we watch video and show them something, you do it right over and over and over again, instead of doing what you want.”
Even more frustrating is with a dozen players back from last season’s championship run, the comprehension level should be much higher.
“That’s the infuriating part,” Perry said.
“It’s those returning guys who are the biggest problem right now.”
Already missing one of their top blue-liners, Kyle Trottier, due to an upper-body injury, the Rock saw three more players go down during Friday night’s contest.
“We lost (blue-liner) Tenzin Nyman (lower-body) early, we lost Jack Anderson (lower-body) and we lost Kaeden McArthur (upper-body),” Perry said.
“T (Nyman) is probably out four weeks, Jack has to get his knee looked at and K-Mac is day-to-day.”
Noah Tegelaar turned aside 19 of the 23 shots the Rock direct his way to earn his fourth win of the season for the Beavers.
Boivin, who blocked 18 of the 22 shots directed his way in his 30:43 of work, was tagged with the loss for the Rock. Riley stopped 12 of the 15 shots he faced in his 29:17 of relief.
PAPER KINGS 6 ROCK 3
Lucas Signoretti scored a pair of goals and set up another to help lead the Paper Kings to a 6-3 win over the Rock at the Espanola Regional Recreation Complex Friday night.
The Rock outshot the Paper Kings 12-11 in the opening period, but found themselves trailing 2-0, with Signoretti and Spencer Horgan finding the back of the net for the home side.
Liam Wells got the Rock on the scoreboard 20 seconds into the middle frame when he netted his sixth goal of the season, a power-play marker.
Signoretti’s second goal of the night and fourth of the season put the Paper Kings in front 3-1 with 41 seconds remaining in the second period.
The Rock got that one back before the intermission, however, as Anderson scored his first goal in a Rock uniform with three seconds remaining on the clock.
Any momentum that goal might have provided the Rock, however, was lost when the Paper Kings added a pair of power-play markers just over two minutes apart early in the third period.
Horgan, with his sixth goal of the season, and Graydon Guthrie, with his first tally of the campaign, provided that fire power.
The Rock got one of those markers back just shy of the midway point in the frame when Thomas Beard scored his second goal of the season.
That would be as close as they would come to getting back on even terms, however, as Liam McDonald deposited his second goal of the season into an empty Rock net, with Boivin on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
Jake Marois stopped 41 of the 44 shots the Rock directed his way to earn the victory for the Paper Kings.
Boivin, who turned aside 37 of the 42 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss for the Rock.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Saturday night’s contest were Gallagher, Robinson and Beavers forward Wyatt Gibson (three assists), while Signoretti, Horgan and Paper Kings forward Blake Peters-Davey (two assists) were selected Friday night … The Rock went 2-5 on the power play, while the Beavers were 1-3 with the man advantage Saturday night. Friday night, the Rock went 1-4 on the power play, while the Paper Kings were 3-5 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Blind River Community Centre was 272 Saturday night, while 249 fans attended Friday night’s contest at the Espanola Regional Recreation Complex … Saturday’s other action saw the Voodoos top the Paper Kings 5-1 in Powassan and the Eagles edge the Soo Thunderbirds 5-4 in overtime in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. … The Rock will take on the Greater Sudbury Cubs on Tuesday and the Beavers on Wednesday at the NOJHL Showcase in Sudbury.
