Timmins Rock forward Reece Liu tries to jam the puck under Kirkland Lake goalie Kael Moberg while being checked by Gold Miners blue-liner Nolan Garrard during Saturday night’s NOJHL contest at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex. Liu picked up his first NOJHL point, an assist on Henry McLellan’s first period goal, as the Rock went on to defeat the Gold Miners 5-1. ALLYSON DEMERS/NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc
Photos: Allyson Demers
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
KIRKLAND LAKE — Brant Romaniuk scored his NOJHL-leading fifth and sixth goals of the season to help lead the Timmins Rock to a 5-1 win over the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex Saturday night.
With the victory Timmins — now 4-0-0-0 on the season — sits all alone atop the NOJHL standings.
Coach and general manager Brandon Perry was much happier with what he saw from his Rock squad Saturday night than he had been during Friday night’s 6-4 win over the Powassan Voodoos on home ice.
“From start to finish, I thought the boys played a solid, solid game,” he said.
“Our goal every game is to play a good defensive game, a structured game away from the puck and we did a good job of that tonight. When they did get through, (Rock goalie) Graham (Gee) was there. He was solid.”
Without naming names, the Rock coach called out his veterans for their lazy play Friday night and they responded in a positive manner against the Gold Miners.
“Friday night was just one of those games and they needed to be held accountable,” Perry said.
“It was an effort thing, nothing to do with their ability to play the game and they all did a lot better job tonight.”
It was the Gold Miners, who were playing their home opener after falling 8-3 to the Storm in Iroquois Falls, who hit the scoreboard first Saturday night.
Trent Nobes scored netted the first goal of his NOJHL career just shy of the five-minute mark in the opening period.
“It was just an unlucky bounce and we kind of got caught up a little bit,” Perry said.
“We had had a great start to our game and there was just no panic in our group.”
But the Rock got back on even terms five-and-a-half minutes later, as Henry McLellan scored his first goal of the season.
“After we tied it up, there was no looking back,” Perry said. “They (Gold Miners) did a really good job in the first period, clogging up the middle of the ice and blocked a lot of shots. They had five guys in the house and it was hard to get pucks through and their goalie made some big saves.”
The Rock took control of the game in the middle frame, outshooting the Gold Miners 16-6 while scoring three unanswered goals.
“We did some stuff in the intermission and did a better job of getting to the net in the second period, finding lanes and getting pucks through,” Perry said.
“We kind of gave ourselves a nice little lead there and played good hockey, played fantastic hockey tonight.”
Romaniuk’s fifth tally of the season 4:46 into the period would stand up to be the game-winning goal.
Alexis Tremblay then added the first goal of his NOJHL career three minutes later.
Romaniuk closed out the scoring in the frame, as he netted his second goal of the game and sixth of the season with just under four minutes on the clock.
The Rock coach clearly liked what he saw from Romaniuk, who won’t turn 17 until Oct. 4.
“That’s what Brant does, he scores, he gets grumpy when he doesn’t score,” Perry said.
“He played a fantastic game and he has been great all year.”
The Rock added one more marker in the third period, as Ryan Boon netted his second goal of the season to make the final score 5-1 in favour of the visitors.
A number of Rock newcomers found ways to contribute Saturday night, with Gee getting the win, Tremblay and Boon netting goals and Reece Liu, Boon and Braedyn Cyr each adding an assist.
“Those guys are coming along nice and contributing when needed,” Perry said.
“They just keep their heads down and work hard. They are good kids and they got rewarded tonight.”
Gee stopped 16 of the 17 shots he faced to earn his first NOJHL victory in his first Junior ‘A’ start.
Gold Miners netminder Kael Moberg, who turned aside 31 of the 36 shots the Rock directed his way was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Romaniuk, Boon and Nobes … The Rock went 0-3 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 0-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at Mavrinac Community Complex was 445 … Saturday’s other action saw the Greater Sudbury Cubs edge the Storm 4-3 in Iroquois Falls, the Espanola Paper Kings take down the Rapids 7-6 in overtime in French River and the Thunderbirds double up the Blind River Beavers 4-2 in Sault Ste. Marie … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Thunderbirds at the McIntyre Arena, at 7 p.m.
