Timmins Rock forward Lucas Lowe first a shot past Kirkland Lake Gold Miners goalie Graydon Mole for the first of his three goals during the first period of Friday night’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Lowe’s hat-trick — the first of his Junior ‘A’ career — helped the Rock post a 13-2 win over the Gold Miners. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
TIMMINS, ON – The Timmins Rock’s mastery of the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners reached a whole new level at the McIntyre Arena Friday night.
A 13-2 victory over the visitors produced the Rock’s 37th-straight win over the Gold Miners in the past five seasons.
Lucas Lowe’s first Junior ‘A’ hat-trick kick started a Rock offence that was firing on all cylinders Friday night.
The 18-year-old Toronto product was originally credited with four goals in the contest but a second-period marker was later corrected to show linemate Hayden Rynard had put the puck in the net, with Lowe earning an assist on the play.
“It is the first time I have picked up more than two points in a game,” he said.
“Our line (Lowe, Rynard and Thomas Beard) has just been working as hard as we can in practice, doing all the systems and we have been playing the best hockey we have played in the past 10 games.
“We have just been playing for the team and its coming.”
The unit has consistently gain praise from the coaching staff for being one of the more reliable trios up front, game-in and game-out.
“We played together a little bit last season,” Lowe said.
“All three of us get along super well and we just want to play hard, play for the team.”
The Rock jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes of play and never looked back.
Liam Wells got the puck rolling when he scored his 22nd goal of the season 5:32 into the contest.
Just over a minute later, Brant Romaniuk scored the first of his two goals in the game and eighth of the campaign.
Less than a minute later, Jack Kelly converted a feed from Romaniuk for his fourth goal of the season.
Harry Clark added the first of his two goals in the contest and 22nd of the campaign four minutes later.
And Lowe closed out the scoring in the opening frame when he netted the first of his three goals on the night and eighth of the season.
The Rock came out flying when the puck dropped to start the middle frame and they added three more tallies, increasing their advantage to 8-0.
Clark started things off when he scored his second goal of the game and 23rd of the season 6:25 into the period.
Rynard followed with his seventh goal of the season two seconds shy of the midway point.
Romaniuk added an unassisted marker, his second goal of the game and ninth of the season, 21 seconds later.
The Gold Miners finally got on the scoreboard when Jonah McIndoo netted his second goal of the season, 27 seconds later.
The Rock were able to get that one back before the intermission, however, as blue-liner Tenzin Nyman scored an unassisted marker, his second tally of the campaign.
Up 9-1 heading into the third period, the Rock took advantage of a series of power-play opportunities to build upon their lead.
Thomas Beard scored his 12th goal of the season a minute and a half into the frame.
Lowe followed with his second goal of the game and ninth of the campaign 52 seconds later.
And Ryan Armitage added his eighth goal of the season just past the midway point in the period.
The Rock didn’t stop there, however, as Lowe completed his hat-trick when he netted his 10th goal of the season less than three minutes later.
Kirkland Lake’s Inde Abresch closed out the scoring with 19 seconds remaining on the clock, as he netted his 10th goal of the campaign.
Lowe feels there isn’t any big secret to the Rock’s lengthy string of success against the Gold Miners.
“I think it is just a matter of confidence,” he said.
“Sometimes, we have slow starts but we just seem to be really confident when we play them. We stick to what we are good at doing.”
Safe to say, however, there was nothing slow about the Rock’s start during Friday night’s contest.
“After our loss to Hearst (4-2 on Sunday), the coaches were mad at us week, had a hard one (practice) Tuesday,” Lowe said.
“We know we can’t be dropping games like that to one of our rivals.”
Friday night’s contest marked the third time in four outings since the NOJHL’s Christmas break that the Rock have scored at least 10 goals in a game.
“We don’t really care about the score,” Lowe said.
“We just want to stick to our game, play hard. It doesn’t matter if it’s a one-goal game, or a 10-goal game, we need to stick to what our team does best.”
Rock goalie Dryden Riley stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced to earn his 13th win of the season.
Gold Miners goalie Graydon Mole, who turned aside 25 of the 38 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Lowe, Kelly and Romaniuk … The Rock went 3-4 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 0-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 996 … Friday’s other action saw the Hearst Lumberjacks double up the Storm 6-3 in Iroquois Falls, the Powassan Voodoos blank the Paper Kings 5-0 in Espanloa, the Thunderbirds edge the Greater Sudbury Cubs 3-2 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and the Eagles dump the Elliot Lake Vikings 6-1 in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. … The Rock will return to action on Saturday when they take on the Storm at the Jus Jordan Arena in Iroquois Falls, at 7 p.m.
