Timmins forward Edan Etheridge leads his teammates back to the Rock bench in celebration of his first career NOJHL goal during the first period of Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Etheridge, playing in his second NOJHL game as an affiliate player, scored twice, but it was not enough as Iroquois Falls stormed back to edge the Rock 4-3 in overtime. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS jpg, TD, apsmc
An uninspired and undisciplined third period proved costly for the Timmins Rock, as they dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena, Sunday afternoon.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
Heading into the frame, the Rock enjoyed a 3-1 advantage but things quickly unraveled for the home side, as the Storm struck for a pair of power-play markers 46 seconds apart.
Jordan Mayo’s 19th tally of the season closed the Storm’s deficit to a single goal and Jack Jarvis’ 18th marker of the campaign deadlocked the score at 3-3.
That set the stage for Lucas Peever’s game-winning goal, his sixth marker of the season, 1:46 into overtime.
Early on, it looked like the Rock were going to roll to their eighth win in the past 10 games, as they dominated the opening 20 minutes of action — outscoring the Storm 2-0, while outshooting them 12-3.
Affiliate player Edan Etheridge, who had scored his 30th goal of the GNU18L season to help his Timmins Majors secure a victory over the Flyers in Kapuskasing Friday night, netted his first career NOJHL marker 12:03 into the contest.
“I was lining up on the half wall and the puck kind of squirted out and (Alexis) Tremblay passed it to me, we were on a two-on-one and their D-man gave me the shot and I ripped the puck right over the goalie’s (catching) glove,” said Etheridge, who had played his first NOJHL game in Greater Sudbury Thursday night.
Jack Kelly followed with his team-leading 23rd goal of the season 11 seconds later and it looked like the Rock might run away with Sunday afternoon’s contest.
Things began to change in the middle frame, however, as the Storm outshot the Rock 13-11.
Still, while the teams exchanged goals in the period, the Rock emerged with a 3-1 lead.
Blue-liner Tibor Nemeth got the Storm on the scoreboard 36 seconds into the frame when he notched the first of three power-play markers for Iroquois Falls, his second goal of the season.
Etheridge restored the Rock’s two-goal lead just over three minutes later when he netted his second tally of the game, season and NOJHL career.
“I was the bumper (in the high slot) and the puck came out to me and I capitalized on it,” Etheridge said.
That set the stage for the Storm’s comeback, as they took the play to the Rock in the third period and outshot them 14-10.
With two NOJHL games under his belt, Etheridge is starting to feel more comfortable in a Rock uniform.
“I am really getting used to the speed and feel like I am fitting in, so it just feels great,” he said.
Etheridge was playing on a line with Kai Clayton and Tremblay Sunday afternoon.
“Every shift we were gaining more and more chemistry out there,” he said.
With two goals, Etheridge admitted he was thinking about the possibility of netting a third to complete a hat-trick.
“Obviously, it was in the back of my mind, but my primary goal was for us to win the hockey game,” he said.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was not a happy camper following Sunday’s overtime setback.
“We took too many penalties (in the third period) and things like that are going to come back and bite you,” he said. “We had a great first period and that was that. We just didn’t want to play after that.”
The coach wasn’t in any kind of mood to single out many individual players for extra praise following the setback.
“(Etheridge) played great, he just listens,” Perry said. “You tell him what to do and he does it. The rest of our guys, do whatever they want, don’t care about the team’s plan, just want to do things their way. When they don’t have success, they pout. There is just a lot of selfishness going on in that dressing room.”
While the Rock picked up a point, which could prove valuable in the race to finish as high as possible in the NOJHL standings, the coach was not about view it as a consolation prize.
“No, there is no comfort in getting that point,” Perry said. “We just handed a point away for absolutely no reason.”
Can the Rock’s third-period collapse be attributed to the Storm, who are in ninth place in the standings, two points back of the Espanola Paper Kings in the battle for the final playoff spot, being more desperate?
“I don’t think so, we just took too many penalties, we didn’t score on our chances, we didn’t score on the power play, we had two or three breakaways and we didn’t score, they buried their chances and we didn’t, our penalty kill lacked details and our goalie couldn’t give us a save and we lost,” Perry said.
The Rock were missing forwards Lucas Lowe (lower-body injury) and Thomas Beard (upper-body injury), as well as blue-liner Sam Gallagher (upper-body injury) Sunday afternoon.
According to Perry, all three players are week-to-week at this point in their recovery.
“We miss them, obviously, because they play the game the right way,” he said, noting the hope is all three will be back in the lineup in time for the playoffs.
Storm goalie Justin Sullivan, who turned aside 30 of the 33 shots the Rock directed his way, earned his fifth win of the season.
Rock goalie Dryden Riley, who stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Peever, Etheridge and Mayo … The Rock went 1-5 on the power play, while the Storm went 3-7 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 773 … Sunday’s other action saw the Hearst Lumberjacks triple the Gold Miners 6-2 in Kirkland Lake, the Voodoos hold off the Soo Thunderbirds 4-1 in Powassan and the Soo Eagles credited with a 1-0 win over the Elliot Lake Vikings by forfeit … The Rock will return to action on Thursday when they take on the Beavers in Blind River. The next home game will be on Sunday, March 2, when the Rock host the Rock Alumni at the McIntyre Arena, at 1 p.m.
