Timmins Rock forward Clark Scaddan appeared to have Hearst Lumberjacks goalie Alexandre Boivin at his mercy on this play during the second period of Monday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena, but instead of shooting he dished a pass off to winger Reece Liu who scored his 12th goal of the season. The goal gave the Rock a 2-1 lead in the game, but the Lumberjacks stormed back to tie things up and it ended in a 3-3 deadlock. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
The Timmins Rock and the Hearst Lumberjacks were fit to be tied at the McIntyre Arena Monday afternoon.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
And, as a result, the NOJHL rivals each picked up a single point in the 3-3 Family Day contest, played in front of 1,133 — the largest crowd to watch a game in any league arena this season.
The point allowed the Lumberjacks (32-10-1-1) to increase their lead on the Blind River Beavers (30-12-1-2) in the battle for second place in the NOJHL standings to three points.
Meanwhile, the Rock (29-14-1-0) pulled to within three points of the Soo Eagles (30-13-0-2) in the battle for fourth place and they still have a game in hand.
While the Rock’s seven-game winning streak came to an end, they will carry an eight-game undefeated streak into their next contest against the Cubs in Greater Sudbury Thursday night.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was understandably frustrated following the contest.
“We deserved to win, we got robbed,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “We had it taken away from us and that’s the way it goes, I guess, sometimes.”
The coach liked a lot of the things his team was doing effectively Monday afternoon.
“We just played good hockey in the second period,” Perry said. “In the first period, any time we got momentum we took a penalty that gave them a lot of momentum.
“In the second, we just kind of got rolling. It started with that power play. We were feeling good, we were moving the puck and we played with a ton of urgency in the second and third periods.
“It was a really good hockey game.”
Even though the Rock were outshot 11-9 in the second period, they had a number of quality scoring opportunities in addition to the three on which they were able to capitalize.
“We missed a lot of chances, we should have put a couple in the net,” Perry said.
The majority of those missed opportunities resulted in pucks being shot wide of the net, skewing the shots on goal totals somewhat.
The Rock appeared to have Monday afternoon’s game well in hand, as they held a 3-1 lead with six-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation.
But with the Rock on the power play, looking to add to their advantage, forward Kaeden McArthur, who was being tied up by a Hearst defender, crashed heavily into Lumberjacks goalie Alexandre Boivin.
After conferring, the officials handed McArthur a five-minute major penalty for goaltender interference and a game misconduct, to the shock of Rock fans who clearly felt the forward was steered into Boivin by the Hearst defender.
Playing five-on-five, DonHeaven Veilleux scored an unassisted marker, his 21st tally of the season, to pull the Lumberjacks to within a single goal.
Then, on the power play, Liam Boswell connected for his 13th goal of the campaign to tie things up at 3-3.
The Rock penalty kill, with a number of key saves from goalie Dryden Riley, shut the door the rest of the way.
That set the stage for the Rock’s first taste of three-on-three sudden death overtime this season, but neither they nor the Lumberjacks were able to convert on any of their excellent opportunities in the seven minute period.
The Lumberjacks had jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period of the contest, with blue-liner Brayden Hindman scoring his third goal of the season.
McArthur got the Rock back on even terms three-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame when he netted a power-play marker, his 19th goal of the season.
Three minutes later, Reece Liu concerted a cross-crease pass from Clark Scaddan to net his 12th goal of the season and give the Rock a 2-1 lead.
Thomas Beard followed with his 14th goal of the season a little over two minutes later.
Even though Riley surrendered three goals in the contest, his coach noted he made a number of stops at key points in the game that allowed the Rock to salvage at least a point.
“He was real solid tonight,” Perry said. “He gave us a chance to win and that’s all we can ask out of him.
“Everybody played well. This was just a hard game to swallow.”
Riley was almost as frustrated as his coach following the contest.
“We were in a good situation and it went bad real quick,” he said. “I think both goals on my end were savable, but you live and you learn.
“I really like how the team stayed together and we didn’t give up. We kept pushing and made some big plays in the third period and some big plays in overtime.
“It was good we were able to put on a show for the fans today, but it sucks that couldn’t get the full two points, either in regulation or in overtime, but I am just glad we kept working.”
While overtime can be thrilling for the fans, do goaltenders enjoy all that end-to-end action, with the game on the line?
“Sometimes, it feels like I am playing shinny hockey out there,” Riley said. “I like that, I like the breakaways, the backdoor passes. I like being that agile goalie who can stop them. I was happy with how I performed in overtime.”
While Riley was sad to see the Rock’s winning streak come to an end Monday afternoon, he is happy they will still be able to carry an eight-game undefeated streak into Greater Sudbury for Thursday’s clash with the Cubs.
“Playing a road game in Sudbury, we need that momentum,” he said. “Hopefully, we can go into their barn and take two points from them.”
Riley stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced to earn the first tie of his NOJHL career.
Boivin, who turned aside 22 of the 25 shots the Rock directed his way, also collected his first NOJHL tie.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Riley, Veilleux and Liu … The Rock went 1-4 on the power play, while the Lumberjacks were 1-6 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 1,133 … The Rock will travel to Greater Sudbury on Thursday for a game against the NOJHL-leading Cubs. The next home game will be on Sunday when the Rock host the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena, at 1 p.m.
