Powassan Voodoos goalie Derrick Champagne gets just enough of his shoulder on this Timmins Rock point shot to deflect the puck over the crossbar during the first period of Tuesday night’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Champagne made 36 saves to help the Voodoos defeat the Rock 5-2, ending Timmins 21-game winning streak. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
Timmins Rock’s quest to establish a new NOJHL winning streak record came to a close 19 games shy of the mark shared by the 1989-90 Sudbury Cubs and the 1999-2000 Rayside-Balfour Sabrecats
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
The Timmins Rock’s quest to establish a new NOJHL winning streak record came to a close at the McIntyre Arena Tuesday night — 19 games shy of the mark shared by the 1989-90 Sudbury Cubs and the 1999-2000 Rayside-Balfour Sabrecats.
After winning 21-straight games, the Rock dropped a 5-2 decision to the Powassan Voodoos, a team that has gone 8-2-0-0 in its past 10 games.
While he is happy with the two points, Voodoos coach Peter Goulet said his team didn’t take any extra satisfaction from ending the Rock’s winning streak.
“It’s just another hockey game,” he said. “(Rock coach and general manager) Brandon (Perry) has done a great job with his hockey team. I worry about one game at a time and they have a good team over there. They play hard and when we got up 2-0 they battled back and we did a great job of responding after they tied the game.
“Obviously, we were aware of it (the Rock’s 21-game winning streak), they were on a roll, but we were focused on what our team was doing and how we are playing.”
Goulet felt the game was a little closer than the final score might indicate.
“I thought both teams worked hard, but we got a couple of power-play goals,” he said. “It was a good hockey game and a great game for the fans. Too bad there wasn’t a bigger crowd here to watch a game like this.”
When reminded the temperatures outside the McIntyre Arena might has resulted in a few fans opting to stay home and watch the contest on FloHockey, Goulet said, “I couldn’t agree more. I don’t blame them at all. It wasn’t meant to be a shot at the fans. It’s a Tuesday night and it is cold. They have a great fan base up here and we love the atmosphere when we come up here.”
Perry acknowledged all streaks have to come to an end at some point.
“I wouldn’t call 21 games in a row luck, there was a lot of hard work, but we knew we were going to drop one eventually,” he said. “It sucks that it happened on home ice and it sucks the way it happened.”
Perry felt the Rock played well enough in the first two periods to perhaps deserve a better fate, but felt the third period left much to be desired.
“I liked our first two periods, but I thought our special teams were shit,” he said. “Our penalty kill was brutal, our power play was worse. It was just guys being mentally tired and making mistakes.
“I just thought our special teams let us down and the mistakes we made were bad, but in the first 40 minutes when you outshoot a team 28-16 and you are losing 3-2, and our best players didn’t show up.”
Teams never like to give up a goal in the first or final minute of a period and Perry agreed giving up a goal with 29.3 seconds on the clock in the second period was deflating.
“We had guys just standing around in the D Zone, guys cheating on offence, waiting for breakaways, not making the hard plays, reaching for pucks all night,” he said.
“That line (Matteo Paradiso, Diego Da Silva and Kaeden McArthur) especially, what do expect is going to happen. They are three of our best players and they haven’t shown up in three or four games now.”
The Voodoos jumped out to a 1-0 first-period lead, courtesy of Jax Pereira’s power-play marker, his ninth goal of the season.
They added to that advantage 41 seconds into the middle frame, when Benjamin Coupal scored his 16th goal of the campaign.
The Rock finally got on the scoreboard five minutes later, as Evan Katic netted his fourth goal of the season.
Maxx Hamelin’s second goal of the campaign pulled the Rock even just shy of the 12-minute mark.
But the Voodoos were able to reclaim the lead with 29.3 seconds remaining in the period, as Ryan Saginaw scored his 22nd goal of the season.
That marker seemed to take a lot of the wind out of the Rock’s sails, heading into the third period and they never recovered.
Justin Rousseau’s power-play marker, his 11th goal of the season, and Pereira’s second tally of the night and 10th of the campaign added to the Voodoos lead in the third period, leaving the final score 5-2 in favour of the visitors.
Goulet felt his squad’s victory was the result of a team effort, but he did single out a handful of Voodoos for a little extra praise.
“(Pereira) is a special player,” he said. “He was a big guy for us to get back at the (CJHL) trade deadline. If you gave me one guy I could get back, out of all the guys I talked to over the course of the last month before the deadline, he would have been my No. 1 choice. It’s great we got him back. It’s a big lift for our hockey team.
“(Dylan Rousselle) is a great defenceman. He defends well, he plays the wall extremely well. He is really good offensively, as well. He is a well-rounded defenceman. He is just starting to come into his own and he is going to be a force for a long time.
“(Voodoos goalie) Derrick (Champagne) has been solid for us all year and it was a great game, a great start from him tonight. I thought he really responded well after they tied the game 2-2. He didn’t give up another one and that allowed us to get a couple of goals, seal the game off.”
Goulet also liked what he saw from blue-liner Marcus Krats, Tuesday night.
“He has been unbelievable,” he said. “Braeden Begley has been unbelievable for us, as well, Caleb Dawson and Ryan Saginaw, as well.
“It’s a team game and it takes everyone to win. Owen Head, as a rookie, has had an unbelievable year and Parker Bonsignore is just starting to come into his own and play well.”
Perry’s list of Rock players who played well in Tuesday night’s contest was nowhere near as lengthy as Goulet’s list of Voodoos.
“(Rock goalie) Ayden Mullen battled in net for us,” he said. “We had three lines going, that’s the bottom line. Everybody else played okay, but we had one line that was just dragging, dead weight. They don’t want to do things right. They don’t want to play in the D Zone. They don’t think it’s important. They just want to get breakaways, breakaways and breakaways.
“That’s not the game of hockey. It’s a hard game.”
As much as Tuesday night’s defeat stings, there are likely 11 other teams in the NOJHL who would love to have 21 victories in their past 22 games.
“Losing a game doesn’t change anything,” Perry said.
Champagne turned aside 36 of the 38 shots the Rock directed his way to earn his 13th win of the season.
Mullen, who stopped 20 of the 25 shots he faced, was tagged with just his second regulation loss in 15 decisions.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Pereira (two goals, one assist), Rousselle (two assists) and Champagne (36 saves) … The Rock went 0-4 on the power play, while the Voodoos were 2-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 683 … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Soo Thunderbirds at the McIntyre Arena, at 7:30 p.m.
