Timmins Rock blue-liners Kyle Trottier, left, and Ayden Trottier battle for a loose puck with Kirkland Lake Gold Miners forward Luca Maiuri in front of goalie Patrick Boivin during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex. Maiuri managed to score his seventh goal of the season in the contest, but it would not be enough as the Rock rolled to a 10-3 victory — their 36th-straight against the Gold Miners. NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE — The Timmins Rock spotted the Gold Miners a one-goal advantage before storming back to thump their NOJHL opponents 10-3 at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex Sunday afternoon.
In the past five seasons, the East Division-leading Rock (23-10-2-0) have now won 36-straight games against the Gold Miners (7-24-3-1), who sit in fifth place in the division — three points behind the Iroquois Falls Storm (10-25-0-1).
It was the first game following the NOJHL’s Christmas break for the Rock, who pelted Gold Miners goalies Graydon Mole and Roch Pilon, a South Porcupine product, with 66 shots.
Clearly it didn’t take the Rock long to shake off any rust that may have accumulated during their 19 days between games.
Then again, the fact they suffered a 3-2 regulation loss on home ice to their hated rival Hearst Lumberjacks in the final game before the break likely didn’t do much for their disposition heading into Sunday afternoon’s contest.
For the most part, Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry liked what he saw from his squad Sunday afternoon.
“It was a pretty solid game,” he said.
“Obviously, there was a little bit of rust at the start but that was to be expected. It was a good effort for our first one back.”
Blue-liner Cole Ellis, a Chapleau product, gave the Gold Miners a 1-0 lead 8:01 into the opening period, when he scored his seventh goal of the season, a power-play marker.
It took the Rock just two-and-a-half minutes to get back on even terms, as Harry Clark netted a power-play marker of his own, his 20th goal of the campaign.
Then, 32 seconds later, Jack Kelly put the Rock in front for good when he scored his second goal of the season to make it a 2-1 hockey game.
Mason Svarich followed with the first of his two goals on the afternoon and 24th of the season to add a little insurance before the first intermission.
Gold Miners fans briefly had hope their team’s streak of futility against the Rock might come to an end when Luca Maiuri scored his seventh goal of the season 4:47 into the middle frame to cut the Rock advantage to 3-2.
That hope quickly died, however, as the Rock scored four-straight goals to break the game wide open.
Blue-liner Tenzin Nyman got the puck rolling when he scored his first goal of the season.
Five-and-a-half minutes later, Nolan Ring notched a shorthanded marker, his eighth goal of the season.
Liam Wells then added his first of two goals in the contest and 19th of the season.
With less than two minutes remaining in the period, Svarich added his second goal of the afternoon and 25th of the season in 24 games.
The Rock kept rolling when the puck dropped to start the third period, pumping in three more goals in the first five-and-a-half minutes of the frame.
Brant Romaniuk, named the NOJHL’s top rookie for December, started things off when he scored his seventh goal of the season.
Clark then added his second goal of the afternoon and 21st of the season.
That signaled the end of Mole’s night, with Pilon coming on in relief.
Wells then tacked on his second goal of the game and 20th of the campaign, as the Rock hit double figures.
The Gold Miners closed out the scoring, with Jacob Lamoureux picking up his ninth goal of the season midway through the third period.
Things then got ugly, or uglier if you are a Gold Miners fan, with a line brawl resulting in a number of players from each squad being ejected from the game.
Romaniuk was assessed a two-minute minor for checking from behind, a five-minute major for fighting and a game misconduct, while Rock blue-liner Ethan Albert received a five-minute major for fighting and a game misconduct for being in a second fight during the same stoppage of play. Meanwhile Gold Miners forward Nolan Rosko-Fong was assessed a two-minute minor for instigating, a five-minute major for fighting and a game misconduct, while blue-liner Jorick Pepin received a five-minute major for fighting and a game misconduct for being in a second fight during the same stoppage of play.
“A bad hit just led to a bunch of stuff,” Perry said, acknowledging the players charged with getting into a second fight during the same stoppage in play and likely facing some kind of suspension.
“We won’t know for sure until we get the suspension reports either later tonight or in the morning.”
Already missing blue-liners Chase Longhurst-McIntyre, serving the first game of a six-game suspension for picking up a match penalty for attempt to injure during the Dec. 19 loss to the Lumberjacks (not to mention a broken hand), and Elijah Pool, serving the fifth game of a five-game suspension for a slew-footing penalty he picked up on Dec. 8, the Rock suddenly find themselves rather thin on the back end.
“It’s crazy, you go from eight (defencemen) to five in a hurry,” Perry said.
With the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s Jan. 10 trade deadline quickly approaching, could there be some action between now and Wednesday?
“There is nothing to report right now,” Perry said.
“The main concern was getting back from the break and getting going with our group. We will think about it over the next couple of days, if something comes up that will make us better, then we will do it, but we are sitting in first place, the team is playing well, getting contributions from all over our group right now. So, we are really happy with our group.”
Perry was happy to see two-goal efforts from each of the team’s Top 3 goal scorers during Sunday’s victory.
“They played great, everybody up and down our lineup was good and we played with a lot of pace and a lot of jump. You could tell the guys were excited to get back to playing games.”
Rock goalie Patrick Boivin stopped 12 of the 15 shots he faced to earn his 12th win of the season.
Mole, who turned aside 47 of the 56 shots the Rock directed his way during his 44:32 of action, was tagged with the loss. Pilon stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced during his first 15:28 of NOJHL action.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Svarich, Wells and Lamoureux … The Rock went 1-5 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 1-3 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex was 297 … Sunday’s other action saw the Lumberjacks hang on to edge the Iroquois Falls Storm 4-3 in Hearst and the Paper Kings dump the French River Rapids 5-1 in Espanola … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena, at 7:30 p.m.
