Members of the Timmins Rock celebrate their 6-0 win over the Hearst Lumberjacks on the opening day of the 2025 NOJHL Showcase at the Countryside Sports Complex, on Tuesday. The Rock dominated their opponent, outshooting them 65-20, a stark contrast to the 7-3 setback they suffered against them in Hearst, on Friday. Photo by ANDREW AUTIO /The Daily Press
Timmins Rock opened the NOJHL Showcase on Tuesday with a 6-0 win over the Lumberjacks at the Countryside Sports Complex, who had handed them a 7-3 setback in Hearst, Friday night
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
SUDBURY — One game after turning in one of the most embarrassing efforts in franchise history, the Timmins Rock turned in one of the most dominant performances of the NOJHL season.
The Rock opened the NOJHL Showcase on Tuesday with a 6-0 win over the Lumberjacks at the Countryside Sports Complex, who had handed them a 7-3 setback in Hearst, Friday night.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was in a lot more jovial mood following Tuesday afternoon’s victory that he had been in the wake of Friday night’s contest.
“It was just a matter of wanting to do it one way and believing this is the way we have to do it,” he said, attempting to explain the turnaround.
“Our systems didn’t change since (Friday night). It was just a matter of buying in and believing. ‘Okay, we have to play a certain way here.’ Today, we did and we found success.”
Perry conceded Tuesday afternoon’s victory coming against a Lumberjacks squad that had embarrassed them Friday night made it a little more special.
“For sure, I think that’s part of it, but honestly, I don’t think it mattered who we played,” he said. “Any time you get beat that bad and you have a lot of pride, like our organization and our team does, you are going to go out and play hard the next game.”
It was all Rock Tuesday afternoon, as they opened the first period with a flourish — outshooting the Lumberjacks 20-3.
Kimani Eccleston, who started the season with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves (4, 0-0-0, 0), got the puck rolling for the Rock when he scored his first NOJHL goal, just 1:55 into the frame.
The Rock acquired his Junior ‘A’ rights from the CCHL’s Brockville Braves in exchange for a player development fee, back on July 17.
The 6-4, 198 pound, left-shooting forward from Brampton would later go on to add an assist, as well.
Brant Romaniuk’s team-leading sixth goal of the season doubled the Rock advantage to 2-0 before the end of the opening period.
Perry acknowledged jumping on the Lumberjacks early and not giving them a chance to regroup and work their way back into the contest was one of the keys to the Rock’s success on Tuesday.
“I think we were just a lot more focused today on ourselves, being good at what we are good at,” he said. “Obviously, the goals are one thing, but I just loved the way we played when we didn’t have the puck. We didn’t give up anything and we were good in the D zone, good in the neutral zone and we forechecked good, had good sticks.
“When our team is having success, we are playing that way, playing structured hockey where the details matter, where your stick is placed matters and it mattered today.
“It was a super response from our group and I am super proud of them.”
The Rock were even more dominant in the middle frame, as they outshot the Lumberjacks 29-5 and increased their advantage to 4-0 after 40 minutes of play.
And, once again, the Rock struck early in the period, with Victor Hourtouat netting his first NOJHL goal, a power-play marker 1:59 into the frame.
Maxfeld Shin also found the back of the net for a power-play tally, his second goal of the campaign.
The third period saw the Rock once more add to their totals and win the shots on goal battle, although the 16-12 totals were not as one-sided as the first two frames.
Kaeden McArthur returned to the Rock lineup to score his second goal of the season 5:48 into the period.
And Thomas Beard added another power-play marker, his fourth goal of the season, to close out the scoring in the contest.
Perry was happy to see the Rock get balanced scoring Tuesday afternoon, but he noted it wasn’t necessarily something they were focused on heading into the contest.
“It is not something we talked about, not something in terms of keys, we need to get depth scoring,” he said. “If all four lines play the game the right way, everybody will have a chance at getting them (goals), right. They just have to put them in, but that’s easier said than done.
“Everybody played well, especially our top guys. Obviously, I had been really hard on those guys so far this season but they were nothing short of fantastic today.
“It was real nice to have K-Mac (McArthur) back in the lineup and Romaniuk had one of his best games of the season. Adding Kimani, he is just such a dynamic player. Diego (Da Silva) was great today and Thomas Beard, those wily veterans, everybody was just going. They were doing things the right way. They were happy for each other and the vibes were good on the bench.”
At that point, shortly after the midway point in the period, the only outcome left in question was whether or not Rock goalie Ayden Mullen would record his first career NOJHL shutout.
His teammates buckled down to ensure the 16-year-old Kingston product would indeed accomplish that feat.
“That is one of my favourite things, when guys find other reasons to play for, other than themselves,” Perry said. “Guys on the bench were saying, ‘hey let’s play six hard minutes here for Mullen.’ That’s a sign of a good team, when guys play for each other and not for themselves.”
Even though the Rock dominated Tuesday’s contest, they continued to be plagued by injuries on the blue-line.
“A little bit, we are getting there,” Perry said, when asked about the health of the five blue-liners who dressed for the contest. “It is just so hard when we are playing every other day. We have been on quite the grind and now we are playing mid-week games. It is hard to get guys healthy when you don’t have days off, but they are getting a little bit better and all five of them did a fantastic job today.”
Ben Climenhaga, Jack Quevillon, Braedyn Cyr, Matthew Kim and William Lobanov manned the Rock blue-line Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to stopping all 20 shots he faced to record the shutout, Mullen earned his second win of the season.
