Gold Miners forward Ethan Alexander takes Timmins Rock forward Brant Romaniuk into the boards in front of the Kirkland Lake bench during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex. Romaniuk’s hat-trick, including a power-play marker, a shorthanded tally and an even-strength goal, helped lead the Rock to a 10-2 win over the Gold Miners. It was their 53rd-straight win over their hosts, a streak dating back to Jan. 15, 2019. Photo by ALLYSON DEMERS /NOJHL NETWORK
Brant Romaniuk’s hat-trick helped pace the Timmins Rock to a 10-2 win over the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
KIRKLAND LAKE — Brant Romaniuk’s hat-trick helped pace the Timmins Rock to a 10-2 win over the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex, Sunday afternoon.
It wrapped up a perfect weekend for the Rock who edged the Storm 2-1 in Iroquois Falls Saturday night, thanks to Romaniuk’s overtime winning goal.
With the two victories, the Rock (8-5-0-1) now have a three-point lead over the Storm (6-7-0-2) in the race for sixth spot in the NOJHL standings and they still have a game in hand.
“It was good, we needed them,” said Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry, summing up his thoughts on the two victories.
“Brant was fantastic today, other than the 10-minute penalty he took.”
Who knows how much more offence Romaniuk might have supplied had he not spent 12 minutes in the penalty box after being assessed a two-minute minor for head contact and a 10-minute misconduct with just under five minutes remaining in the opening period.
Sunday’s 10-2 decision was the 53rd-consecutive regular season victory for the Gold Miners — a streak that dates all the way back to Jan. 15, 2019.
The outcome was not a foregone conclusion, however, as the Rock only held a 1-0 lead after the first period of play, having outshot the Gold Miners 14-13.
Romaniuk’s first of three goals on the afternoon and his 10th of the season, a power-play marker, put the Rock in front at the 2:42 mark of the frame.
Diego Da Silva’s ninth goal of the season doubled the Rock lead 1:39 into a busy second period.
The two teams combined for seven goals in the frame, with the Rock netting six of those tallies.
Lucas Lowe scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal, his first tally of the campaign, just over three minutes after Da Silva got the puck rolling.
“He does so much for our team, but he had been a little snake-bitten this year,” Perry said, of one of the Rock’s leaders on and off the ice. “He has been squeezing his stick a little too tight. The more he has missed, the tighter he has been squeezing it.
“So, it was very good to see him get that one.”
Ryan Armitage followed with a pair of goals, his second and third markers of the season, in the span of two-and-a-half minutes.
Gold Miners fans finally got something to cheer about a minute and a half later when Ryland Harvey struck for his second goal of the campaign.
But the Rock added two more goals before the second intermission to take a 7-1 lead.
Kaeden McArthur picked up his sixth tally of the season and Romaniuk followed with his second goal of the game and 11th of the campaign, a shorthanded marker.
That spelled the end of Gold Miners starting goalie Brian Rathwell’s afternoon, as he was lifted in favour of affiliate goalie Antoine Ethier, of the GNU18L’s North Bay U16 Trappers.
The Rock continued to roll when the puck dropped on third-period action, as Romaniuk completed his hat-trick by adding an even-strength marker, his 12th goal of the season.
Vaive Hickey answered with his first goal of the season for the Gold Miners, but the Rock kept coming.
Thomas Beard netted a power-play marker, his sixth goal of the campaign, before Nicholas Schwertner closed out the scoring by picking up his second tally of the season.
Given the one-sided nature of Sunday afternoon’s victory, Perry didn’t have any difficulty singling out a few Rock players for a little extra praise.
“Everybody, up and down the lineup, had a good game,” he said. “Nicho Schwertner came in and had a good game for a guy who had sat a bunch in the last three weeks. He was fantastic.
“Ryan Armitage played a great game and our penalty killers did a really good job tonight.
“(Frédéric) Cousineau was really good between the pipes. Kaeden McArthur was fantastic. Thomas Beard was good.”
On the negative side of the equation, the Rock lost McArthur to an upper-body injury partway through Sunday afternoon’s contest and Da Silva might be facing a suspension after he was ejected during the middle frame and assessed a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind and a game misconduct.
Gold Miners blue-liner Parker Evans was also ejected from the contest in the third period after he was assessed a five-minute match penalty for slashing, the play on which McArthur was injured.
Earlier in the period, Gold Miners forward Ethan Alexander and Rock blue-liner Ben Climenhaga were sent off after they were each assessed five-minute majors for fighting and game misconducts. Alexander drew an extra two minutes for high sticking.
Cousineau stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced to pick up his second win of the weekend and fifth of the season.
Rathwell, who turned aside 22 of the 29 shots the Rock directed his way in his 35:06 between the pipes, was tagged with the loss for the Gold Miners.
Ethier made 16 saves in the 19 shot attempts he faced in his 24:54 of relief work.
ROCK 2 STORM 1 OT
Romaniuk’s ninth goal of the season 3:47 into overtime lifted the Rock to a 2-1 win over the Storm at the Jus Jordan Arena, Saturday night.
The low-scoring, tightly contested contest saw Cousineau and his Storm counterpart Virgil Sausset Plateaux keep their opponents at bay through the opening 20 minutes of the contest.
Da Silva’s power-play marker, his eighth goal of the season, staked the Rock to a 1-0 lead 2:45 into the middle frame.
With the two goalies matching save for save, it appeared that tally might hold up to be the game-winner but Mathieu Ouellette countered with a power-play marker of his own, his third goal of the campaign, 4:58 into the third period.
Neither team was able to add to their totals through the end of regulation, setting the stage for Romaniuk’s team-leading second game-winning goal of the campaign.
“Saturday night was really a grind,” Perry said. “I really liked our game. I liked the way we played. I liked the way we moved the puck on the power play.
“It was hard to come by goals and it was the same as the weekend before against Espanola when their goalie (Logan Vale) just kind of stood on his head.
“We missed a lot of goal-mouth scrambles, empty nets, but Brant did a good job to get us that one in OT and we got the two points.
“(Frédéric) was great. It is looking like he is back to his old form, finding his game, which is going to be very good news for us. I am very happy for him. He is a great kid.
“I though Kimani Eccleston was fantastic and I thought Diego Da Silva was great in both games this weekend.”
Cousineau stopped 33 of the 34 shots he faced to earn his fourth win of the season.
Virgil Sausset Plateaux, who turned aside 44 of the 46 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Sunday afternoon’s game were Romaniuk, McArthur and Armitage, while Sausset Plateaux, Cousineau and Romaniuk were selected Saturday night … The Rock went 2-8 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 0-7 Sunday afternoon. Saturday night, the Rock went 1-2 on the power play, while the Storm were 1-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex on Sunday was 272, while 451 fans attended Saturday night’s game at the Jus Jordan Arena … Sunday’s other action saw the Lumberjacks edge the Espanola Paper Kings 6-5 in Hearst … The Rock will return to action on Thursday when they host the Hearst Lumberjacks at the McIntyre Arena, at 7 p.m.
