Timmins Rock goalie Dryden Riley makes one of his 36 saves as Soo Eagles forward Tyler Fortson looks on during Friday night’s NOJHL contest at Pullar Stadium. Riley picked up his 21st win in the game, as the Rock went on to defeat the Eagles 4-1 and move into a tie with their opponents for fourth place in the NOJHL standings. JUSTIN CAIRNS/FOR NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc
Victory concludes successful two-game weekend road trip
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
Photos: Justin Cairns
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — The Timmins Rock erupted for four third-period goals en route to a 4-1 win over the Eagles — their Round 1 playoff opponent — at Pullar Stadium Saturday night.
It concluded a two-game weekend road trip for the Rock, who took down the Thunderbirds 5-2 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Friday night.
More importantly, it pulled the Rock (32-15-2-1) into a tie with the Eagles (32-16-0-3) in the battle for fourth place in the NOJHL standings and home-ice advantage in their Round 1 playoff series.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry agreed Saturday night’s contest was your proverbial four-point hockey game.
“It was very important for us to beat them in regulation,” he said. “Obviously, we want to start the playoffs at The Mac (McIntyre Arena) and this was a good step toward that outcome. Sure, there is still some work to do, but that is what we were play for tonight.”
The Rock have two games remaining on their regular season schedule — a clash with the Lumberjacks in Hearst, Friday night, and a home-ice meeting with the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday, at 3:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Eagles will close out their schedule when the face off against the Paper Kings in Espanola, Friday night.
Technically, the Rock still had a chance to catch the Beavers for third place in the standings after their win Saturday night, but those hopes were dashed when Blind River dumped the visiting French River Rapids 6-2 Sunday afternoon.
With the Thunderbirds having no chance to catch either the Rock or the Eagles, that guarantees Saturday night’s opponents will do battle in Round 1, with the only thing remaining to be decided which team gets home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series.
Following Saturday night’s contest, the Rock and the Eagles have split the four regular-season games they have played in 2024-25 — with the Rock winning 4-1 at Pullar Stadium Saturday night and 4-1 at the McIntyre Arena on Feb. 13; and the Eagles winning 5-4 at Pullar Stadium on Dec. 13 and 4-2 at the McIntyre Arena on Oct. 20.
While traditionally this late in the regular season there is a lot of scoreboard watching that goes on, Perry indicated the Rock were pretty much focused on what they could control Saturday night.
“After the game, you obviously check, once we have finished our job, and Hearst did us a favour Friday night (beating the Eagles 4-2), but there was no scoreboard watching tonight since we were playing against the opponent we were trying to catch,” he said.
Saturday night, early on it looked like the Rock’s chances of finishing in fourth place and securing home-ice advantage in Round 1 of the playoffs would be dealt a fatal blow.
Cooper Fredericks’ 33rd goal of the season midway through the opening period gave the Eagles a 1-0.
“We weren’t great tonight in terms of having troubles breaking out of our own zone, at times,” Perry said.
“We had a ton of chances, offensively, but we just couldn’t bury them. Their goalie (Mason Burkes) was standing on his head.”
Burkes shut the door on the Rock through 40 minutes of action, stopping 31 shots to that point in the contest.
But persistence paid off for the Rock, as Brant Romaniuk beat the Eagles goalie for his 16th goal of the campaign 14:36 into the third period.
Clark Scaddan then followed with an unassisted effort that would prove to be the game-winning goal, his 17th tally of the season, 52 seconds later.
Jack Kelly provided a little insurance when he added his first of two goals in the game and 26th of the season, with just 3:20 remaining in regulation.
Kelly then deposited his second goal of the night and 27th of the campaign into an empty Eagles net, with Burkes on the net in favour of an extra attacker and the Rock killing off a penalty, with 42 seconds remaining on the clock.
“We just stuck with it and found a way to put one past him (Burkes) near the end of the game. Then, we ended up getting the winner shortly after that,” Perry said.
“Then, we got the third one and it was just a great job of our guys sticking to it, working, and our best players stepped up at the end of the game. They decided we weren’t going to lose it and that was that.”
The Rock coach went on to single out a few of those players who helped will the team to victory.
“Jack Kelly scored two goals tonight, including a big one, and Brant Romaniuk was around the goal all night, with a ton of chances, scored the tying goal to get us to 1-1,” Perry said.
“It may have been one of the biggest goals of our season, to be honest with you.
“Shortly after that, Clark Scaddan scored, in my opinion, the goal of the year. He got the puck on the short side, went between his legs and put the puck under the bar. It was pretty incredible.
“(Rock goalie) Dryden Riley was fantastic both nights. He was just incredible tonight, solid, calm and gave us a chance to win and that’s what we needed.
Riley stopped 36 of the 37 shots he faced to earn his 21st win of the season.
Burkes, who turned aside 38 of the 41 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
ROCK 5 T-BIRDS 2
The Rock opened their two-game weekend road trip with a 5-2 win over the Thunderbirds at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
Kaeden McArthur got the puck rolling for the Rock when he netted his 21st goal of the season just 51 seconds into the contest.
Kelly then added the first of his two goals on the night and 24 of the campaign eight minutes later.
The Rock added two more goals in the second period to expand their advantage to 4-0.
Kelly scored his second goal of the night and 25th of the season just shy of the midway mark in the frame.
Ryan Armitage followed with a shorthanded marker, his 15 tally of the campaign, four minutes later.
The Thunderbirds finally got on the scoreboard just over 11 minutes into the third period, when Timmins product Callum McAuley netted his 15th goal of the season.
Bryan Fenlon added a power-play marker, his eighth tally of the campaign, to pull the Thunderbirds to within a pair of goals.
Any hope the home fans had of seeing the Soo complete the comeback were dashed, however, when Romaniuk deposited his 15th goal of the season into an empty Thunderbirds’ net with goalie Noah Metivier on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
“Our whole team was great Friday night,” Perry said. “It was one of the better games we have played in a long time, our routes on our forechecks, our sticks, our quick we closed gaps.
“All six of our D Friday night were fantastic. It was just a really, really solid road game. We were just dialed in on our systems, structurally. It was definitely a group effort. It was textbook Rock hockey.”
Riley stopped 33 of the 35 shots he faced to earn his 20th win of the season.
Metivier, who turned aside 26 of the 30 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss for the Thunderbirds.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Saturday night’s contest were Scaddan, Riley and Fredericks, while Kelly, Riley and Armitage were selected Friday night … The Rock went 0-4 on the power play Saturday night, while the Eagles were 0-5 with the man advantage. Friday night, the Rock went 0-1 on the power play, while the Thunderbirds were 1-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at Pullar Stadium Saturday night was 8-3, while 110 fans watched Friday night’s action at the John Rhodes Community Centre … Saturday’s other action saw the Greater Sudbury Cubs blank the Rapids 5-0 in French River, the Storm hold off the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-3 in Iroquois Falls and the Hearst Lumberjacks top the Beavers 5-3 in Blind River … The Rock will return to action on Friday night when they take on the Lumberjacks at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre in Hearst, at 7:30 p.m. They will then close out their 2024-25 regular-season campaign when they host the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday, at 3:30 p.m.
