Timmins Rock forward Brant Romaniuk drills a shot at Powassan Voodoos goalie Miles Gordon during the first period of Friday night’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Gordon got his pad in front of Romaniuk’s shot on this play, but the Rock sniper collected his fourth goal of the season to help his team defeat the Voodoos 6-4 and improve to 3-0-0-0 on the season. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
The Timmins Rock rolled to their third-straight victory to start the 2024-25 NOJHL campaign Friday night at the McIntyre Arena, dispatching the Powassan Voodoos 6-4.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
As impressive as that might sound, Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was not happy with what he saw on the ice at the McIntyre Arena for his squad’s home opener.
Asked if it felt good to play the Voodoos on home ice and not blow a two-goal lead and eventually lose, as they did in the four contests during their 4-3 loss to Powassan in the 2024 NOJHL East Division finals, he said, “Yeah, yeah, it does. It’s two points and we’ll take them.
“I don’t want to be too critical and too negative, because it’s early in the season, but we were just lazy. We played a lazy, lazy hockey game. There was absolutely zero attention to detail in our game and the worst part is was our best players. Our best players floated around all night thinking because they got a goal or an assist, whatever, that they had a good night, but they’re wrong.
“That’s not how you win championships, not even close. I can live with mistakes from a systems standpoint because it is early in the season, bad read, guys trying to make plays that don’t work out, I can live with that stuff, but effort? We don’t coach effort here. You show up and you work hard all day.
“We had guys who just didn’t want to backcheck, forwards who didn’t want to come back into their own zone. They had no issues yelling at our D for not getting them the puck.
“It was just disgusting at times.”
The Rock jumped out to a 1-0 lead one minute into the opening period, as Kaeden McArthur scored his third goal of the season.
Ryan McCoy’s third goal of the season, just shy of the midway mark in the frame, got the Voodoos back on even terms.
But the Rock struck for two power-play markers 50 seconds apart to open up a two-goal lead before the first intermission.
It took Brant Romaniuk just four seconds to net his fourth goal of the season on the first man advantage.
Thomas Beard then added his second goal of the season to send the Rock to the dressing room up 3-1.
Jack Kelly’s third goal of the season 1:18 into the middle frame increased the advantage and it looked like the home side might run away with the contest.
The Voodoos had other ideas, however, and Nathan Pelletier netted a power-play marker, the first goal of his NOJHL career.
Just over three minutes later, Riley Misa added his first NOJHL tally to pull the Voodoos back within a goal of the home side.
Rock blue-liner Braedyn Cyr netted what would prove to be the game-winning goal 2:51 into the third period with a long shot that seemed to handcuff Voodoos goalie Miles Gordon.
“I was just trying to keep the puck in, stay in the offensive zone, put the shot on net and luckily it went in,” he said.
“We were working our tails off, so I was happy it was the game-winning goal.”
Clearly, Cyr’s shot seemed to catch Gordon by surprise.
“It was a bit of a wobbler, a quick shot, that deflected, so I got a bit lucky,” he said.
The lone newcomer on a veteran Rock blue-line, Cyr is happy with his new squad’s quick start to the season.
“Tonight, we didn’t play our best game but we found a way to get it done,” he said.
Ten minutes later, Travis Poan deflected Elijah Pool’s shot from the point to extend the Rock lead to 6-3.
The Voodoos refused to give up, though, as Cayden Kowal scored his first marker of the season to cut the Voodoos deficit to two goals.
They then pulled Gordon in favour of an extra attacker in the game’s dying minutes, but they were unable to close the gap any further, leaving the first score 6-4.
While Perry was unhappy with the Rock’s overall game, there were a couple of players who caught his eye.
“I thought Reece Liu was really good tonight, he competed all night, and I thought Elijah Pool played a good game,” he said.
“Everybody had moments, but on a consistent basis there was only a couple of guys. That’s the concerning part. I would rather lose a game like this. At least it would give you more of a teaching point, as opposed to our guys thinking they can play like that and win hockey games.”
Rock goalie Dryden Riley stopped 28 of the 32 shots he faced to earn his third win of the season.
Gordon, who turned aside 25 of the 31 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Beard, Pelletier and Cyr … The Rock went 2-2 on the power play, while the Voodoos went 1-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 1,002 … Friday’s only other contest saw the Lumberjacks take down the Greater Sudbury Cubs 5-4 in overtime in Hearst … The Rock will travel to Kirkland Lake for a game against the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex on Saturday, at 7 p.m.
