GALLERY: Rock edge Lumberjacks, complete sweep of NOJHL’s top teams

Hearst Lumberjacks forward Henry Ouellet gets off a shot from in close on Timmins goalie Dryden Riley, as Rock defenders Clark Scaddan, left, and Braedyn Cyr look on during Saturday night’s NOJHL contest at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre. Riley stopped 35 of the 37 shots he faced to backstop the Rock to a 3-2 win, their third-straight victory. NORTHERN LIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHY/FOR NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc

Photos: Northern Lights Photography


Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network


HEARST — Jack Kelly scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner, and Dryden Riley made 36 saves as the Timmins Rock toppled the Lumberjacks 3-2 at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre Saturday night.

It gave the Rock a sweep of the NOJHL’s Top 2 clubs following Friday night’s 4-3 triumph over the Greater Sudbury Cubs at the McIntyre Arena.

Overall, the fifth-place Rock (26-14-0-0), winners of their past three games, find themselves four points behind the Soo Eagles (27-11-0-2) and seven points up on the Powassan Voodoos (20-14-0-5), who have a game in hand.

Still, it is a lot more secure position than the precarious one the Rock had after going through a stretch that saw them just win two of eight games, one of which came by forfeit against the Elliot Lake Vikings.

Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry, freshly returned to his squad’s bench after serving a two-game suspension, liked most of what he saw from his team during its two weekend triumphs.

“Maybe not impressive, but it was a road win, which is always good, especially in a building that’s always tough to play in,” Perry said, after Saturday night’s win in Hearst.

“We stuck two it, which was important with our history of blowing two-goal leads. We looked a little shaky there when they got their seconds goal, but we really locked it down in the third period.

“Dryden Riley was our best player and any time your goalie is your best player you have a good chance of winning. That’s what happened tonight and Jack Kelly was fantastic, as well. He gave us some really good minutes. It was just a really good effort.”

Following a scoreless opening 20 minutes of action, the Rock jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the contest on Lucas Lowe’s power-play marker, his 16th goal of the season, just past the midway point in the second period.

Kelly followed with the first of his two goals, also a power-play marker, and 19th of the campaign, to double the Rock advantage six-and-a-half minutes later.

The Lumberjacks got on the scoreboard 50 seconds later, as blue-liner Adam Shillinglaw, Hearst’s captain, netted his 16th goal of the season.

Aiden Kalin then tied things up for the Lumberjacks when he netted his 20th goal of the season, at the 3:15 mark of the third period.

The Lumberjacks rally came up short, however, as Kelly netted his second goal of the game and 20th of the campaign with 3:04 remaining in regulation.

Hearst pressed to get the equalize in the game’s dying minutes, pulling goalie Alexandre Boivin in favour of an extra attacker but the move failed to pay dividends.

Regardless of whether or not the Rock’s three-game winning streak is proof the team has put its recent struggles behind it, Perry remains confident in his players.

“We know we are probably better than our record suggests,” he said. “We have blown a lot of games this season that have been self-inflicted. A lot of times while teams were beating us, I think we were beating ourselves.

“Although our play wasn’t as clean as we would have wanted it to be the last two games, these are two really big wins for us.”

The coach was especially pleased with how the Rock finished up Friday night’s victory over the Cubs.

“We were losing the special teams battle early on, couldn’t get the (penalty) kill and then obviously you turn the puck over in the neutral zone, with all five of our guys going one way and all five of their guys coming at us, you turn the puck over against a good team like that and bad things are going to happen,” Perry said.

“It was just mistakes, not overwhelming play on their part where we were on our heels. Once we got our power play going and our kill did a great job at the end of that game. Our goalie, Dryden Riley, was our best player again.

“Our power play unit did a really job in the third period Friday night. I thought our D played a really good game. Elijah Pool has been fantastic of late. He has been eating up big minutes for us and playing really well defensively, blocking a ton of shots.”

Perry has always cautioned against the danger of getting too high when things are going well, or too low when they are not, and he isn’t about to change that philosophy are three-straight wins.

“That has kind of been our mindset the last four years,” he said. “Things are never as good as they seem and they are never as bad as they seem. We really live by that in our room. It was a good weekend, but we still have a long way to go, lots to work on.”

The Rock were without the services of blue-liner Sam Gallagher, who left Friday night’s game with what appeared to be an upper-body injury.

“Week-to-week at this point,” Perry said, in response to a question dealing with his likely absence from the Rock lineup.

Riley, who stopped 36 of the 38 shots he faced, earned his 17th win of the season, tying him with Boivin for most in the NOJHL to this point in the season.

Boivin, who turned aside 31 of the 34 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.

NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Saturday’s contest were Shillinglaw, Riley and Boivin … The Rock went 2-9 on the power play Saturday, while the Lumberjacks were 0-2 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre on Saturday was 607 … Saturday’s other action saw the Beavers dump the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 7-2 in Blind River, the Thunderbirds triple the Soo Eagles 6-2 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and the Iroquois Falls Storm credited with a 1-0 win over the Elliot Lake Vikings by forfeit … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Espanola Paper Kings at the McIntyre Arena, at 7 p.m.