Timmins Rock forward Hayden Rynard celebrates his first goal of the playoffs as Soo Eagles goalie Jace Knoerle glances over his shoulder as the puck bounces back out of his net during Game 6 of their best-of-seven NOJHL quarter-final series at the McIntyre Arena Sunday night. Rynard’s goal stood up to be the game-winner, as the Rock went on to defeat the Eagles 5-2 and take the series 4-2. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
Timmins Rock punched their ticket to the NOJHL semifinals against either Greater Sudbury Cubs or Hearst Lumberjacks
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
The Timmins Rock punched their ticket to the NOJHL semifinals with a 5-2 win over the Soo Eagles at the McIntyre Arena Sunday night.
It gave the Rock a 4-2 victory in their best-of-seven quarter-final series and earned them a showdown with either the regular-season champion Greater Sudbury Cubs or the Hearst Lumberjacks — depending on the outcome of Game 7 of the quarter-final series between the Soo Thunderbirds and the Beavers in Blind River Tuesday night.
If the Beavers win, the Rock will face off against the Cubs in the semifinals, while a Thunderbirds victory would see them face the Lumberjacks.
While the Rock will enjoy a hard-earned rest, as they await the start of the semifinals not knowing which opponent they face presents a bit of a challenge.
“We don’t know who we are playing, so these rest days we should be prepping for who we are playing next,” said Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry.
“It will be interesting, but we will be ready.”
The Rock outshot the Eagles 21-9 in the opening 20 minutes of action, due in no small part to four power-play opportunities, but they found themselves trailing 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
“It was a little bit of a wake-up call,” Perry said. “Our special teams weren’t very good tonight, but we found a way to win and that’s what matters.”
Anden Marceau’s first goal of the 2025 playoffs staked the Eagles to that early advantage.
“Both of their goalies played fantastic all series,” Perry said. “We put a lot of rubber on them. The shots were skewed a little bit, obviously, in the first because we got four power plays in one period.
“We should have put the game away, but that’s a resilient bunch over there. What a hard, hard team to play against.
“We just had to get going, play better and manage the puck a little better. Our D Zone reads on that first goal, just little things, details, we just weren’t mentally engaged. Chalk it up to whatever you want, tired, fatigued, travel, but we just weren’t as sharp as we needed to be.
“We found a way to bury some chances in that second period.
“I am super proud of our guys. We really battled. This is the most physical series I have been a part of in my three years here. We had a lot of guys playing with injuries and they came through big for us.”
Before the Rock got the puck rolling on their rally, the Eagles doubled their lead six-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame, with Alex Povorozniouk, who had assisted on Marceau’s marker, netting his first goal of the playoffs.
Just over a minute later, Lucas Lowe scored his fourth goal of the playoffs and the Rock were off and rolling.
Clark Scaddan connected on his first goal of the playoffs less than a minute and a half after Lowe had got them on the scoreboard, deadlocking the contest at 2-2.
And Hayden Rynard gave the Rock their first lead in the game with just over three minutes remaining on in the frame, as he netted his first goal of the playoffs — a marker that would hold up to be the game-winner.
Rynard, not known for his goal-scoring prowess, now has 21 tallies in 160 regular season and playoff contests, none likely more important to the franchise than Sunday night’s marker.
“(Matthew) Kim got the puck in our zone and he had some speed, coming up the middle carrying the puck and I made sure I was on the right side for a kick out,” he said, describing how the play developed.
“He kind of skated it in without kicking it out, went to the left side and beat his guy, found me open backdoor and I just put it in the net on the (goalie’s) right side.”
According to Rynard, even when the Rock trailed 2-0 they were confident they could come back and win the game and the series.
“We just had to regroup and tell the boys, ‘we’re good here, once we get one we are going to keep going,’” he said.
That said, the Courtice product felt the Eagles gave the Rock everything they could handle and then some in the six-game series.
“It was a really hard-fought series,” Rynard said. “Props to them, they have a really good club. They wore us down, for sure, but we are glad we could get it done before Game 7.”
While many of his Rock teammates are sporting playoff beards, fans shouldn’t expect to see one on Rynard anytime soon.
“We don’t really have the facial genes in the family, but it’s alright,” he said.
Speaking of family, Rynard gave a shout out to mom, Holly, and dad, Jason, following the contest.
After their three-goal middle-frame outburst, the Rock continued to apply pressure in the third period, but Eagles goalie Jace Knoerle made save after save to keep things close and give the Soo a chance to get back into the contest.
Finally, with time ticking away in the contest and the Eagles’ playoff lives, they pulled Knoerle in favour of an extra attacker, but the move backfired, not once but twice.
Reece Liu deposited his second goal of the playoffs into the empty Soo net with 53 seconds remaining in regulation.
Kai Clayton then closed out the scoring when he too deposited his second goal of the playoffs into a once again Eagles empty net to make the final score 5-2 in favour of the Rock.
The Rock coach was impressed with what he saw from Rynard in all aspects of the game Sunday night.
“I thought he was great,” Perry said. “I was so happy for him. I love that kid.”
The Rock coach also like what he saw from blue-liner Matthew Kim, after the first period.
“I didn’t like his first period, but after that I thought he was fantastic,” Perry said. “He is a really good player and he has got an elite skill set, great feet, great edges, great instincts and he has got a little nastiness to him.”
Dryden Riley, who played every minute of all six games in the series between the pipes for the Rock, was once again outstanding according to his coach — and anybody else who watched the game.
“What more can we say about him,” Perry said. “He was fantastic all series. He played back-to-back games here, then played three-straight on the road, facing 50 shots a night. He was tired, but he kept us in there and gave us a chance to win every single game.”
Riley stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced to earn his fourth win of the 2025 playoffs for the Rock.
Knoerle, who turned aside 48 of the 51 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Rynard, Knoerle and Kim (two assists) … The Rock went 0-5 on the power play, while the Eagles were 1-1 with the man advantage … Attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 631 … Saturday night the Thunderbirds blanked the Blind River Beavers 3-0 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., to force Game 7 in the series. Game 7 will be played at the Blind River Community Centre on Tuesday, at 7 p.m.
