TIMMINS, Ont. – Getting a goal from Dharan Cap with less than a minute remaining in overtime sent the Soo Thunderbirds to their 13th straight Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory Saturday as they edged the Timmins Rock 4-3 in a hotly-contested match-up at McIntyre Arena.
It took the hometown Rock just 63 seconds to commence the scoring on the night as Nicolas Pigeon sent a crisp cross-ice pass that found a hard-skating Tyler Schwindt driving to the net where he slammed in his team-leading 29th tally past Sault Ste. Marie starter Noah Zeppa.
Going to the power play nearly five minutes later, Timmins tacked on another when Tyler Gilberds cranked a blast from inside the right faceoff circle that flew past Zeppa.
Getting one back before the first intermission, the Thunderbirds’ Cooper Foster ran a consecutive game point streak to eight as his feed from the corner found pinching defenceman Kolby Fellinger coming in where buried one from the crease at 14:54 for his first NOJHL goal.
Play in the middle stanza saw the Rock hold the edge in shots, but neither club would score as Timmins held their 2-1 cushion through 40 minutes.
In the third, Sault Ste. Marie saw Foster pick up the tying tally at 3:39 with a man advantage marker via the back hand from close range.
It was more Foster three minutes later as he made a rush into Timmins’ territory when he proceeded to wire one off the post and in from the left of McCarthy.
Battling back to tie it and force extra time, Pigeon, who has points in seven straight, scored on the power play with 5:39 to go as he stuffed in a rebound after Cameron Dutkiewicz hammered one on net from the point.
In OT, Cap won it late as he kicked up an Andrew Gibson pass from his skate and put a bouncing backhand into the corner of the net past a screened Rock netminder to end it.
While running their win streak to 13, it also helped the Soo improve to a NOJHL-best 71 points and a record of 33-5-2-3.
With the setback, Timmins dropped to 29-7-4-1 on the campaign.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
