Elliot Lake goalie Ryder Lally tracks the puck while Timmins Rock forward Ryan Armitage and Vikings defender Dylan Garvin vie for position to his left during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the Massey & District Arena. The Rock completed a three-game weekend road trip by doubling up the Vikings 4-2 and extending their winning streak to five games. NORTHERN EXPOSURES PHOTOGRAPHY/FOR NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc
Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
ELLIOT LAKE — The Timmins Rock got a pair of goals, including the game-winner, off the stick of Kaeden McArthur, as they completed a three-game road trip with a 4-2 win over the Vikings at the Massey & District Arena Sunday afternoon.
It was the fifth-straight win for the Rock who dumped the Paper Kings 6-2 in Espanola Saturday night after edging the Storm 4-3 in Iroquois Falls Friday night.
Following weekend action, the Rock (15-7-0-0) find themselves in third place in the NOJHL standings, three points behind the Hearst Lumberjacks (16-5-0-1) and one point up on the Blind River Beavers (14-7-1-0).
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was impressed with what he saw from the Vikings Sunday afternoon.
“They are playing really well,” he said. “They are fast, the move the puck fast and they play tough. They are physical. Our game was okay today. We had some good moments and some bad moments. We weren’t as sharp as we were Saturday night. It was an ugly win, but we will take it.”
The Vikings jumped out to a 1-0 lead Sunday afternoon, with Mason Windsor scoring his fifth goal of the season 11:50 into the contest, with former Rock forward Yenry Jibb earning an assist on the play.
But Jack Kelly’s unassisted marker, his eighth goal of the season, 36 seconds later tied things up at 1-1.
McArthur’s first of two goals on the afternoon and ninth of the campaign then gave the Rock the lead later in the opening frame.
The Vikings battled back to tie things up midway through the middle frame, however, as Anthony Bertrand netted his eighth goal of the season.
McArthur’s second goal of the afternoon and 10th of the season snapped the tie 2:04 into the third period.
That tally would stand up to be the game-winner, as blue-liner Sam Gallagher deposited his first goal of the campaign into the empty Elliot Lake net with goalie Ryder Lally on the bench favour of an extra attacker and one second remaining in regulation.
The Rock coach was especially pleased to see McArthur rewarded with a pair of goals Sunday afternoon.
“It was so good to see him get those,” Perry said. “I know he has been getting a ton of chances the last few games and the pressure was mounting on him, so it was nice to see him get a couple today.”
The coach was also happy to see Gallagher net his first goal of the campaign, as well, especially since McArthur passed up an opportunity to complete a hat-trick on the play.
“I thought K-Mac was going to chase it down and put it in for the hat-trick, but he let it go,” Perry said.
“He (Gallagher) was trying to pass it to K-Mac for a breakaway, but it just missed him and kept going until it went in the net. He (McArthur) started skating for it, but once he realized it was going to go in, he let up.
“Gally has been playing great.”
A number of other Rock players impressed their coach Sunday afternoon, as well.
“I thought (goalie) Dryden Riley was our best player the last two games,” Perry said.
“He was solid again today and Reece Liu played some good hockey. All our guys today had some good moments and some bad moments. It just wasn’t a really clean game, overall. Just when we thought things were starting to click and we were playing good, we did some stuff that isn’t characteristic of us. Then, we would get back and have a couple of shifts where things were clean and hard. It was just one of those games, but we pulled through.”
While the Rock have now won five-straight games, the coach’s approach to the week ahead is the same as it would be if they had lost five in a row.
“The last three-and-a-half years I have been coaching here, I have learned things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem,” Perry said.
“It is all about getting up the next day and getting back to work and getting better. We believe in that process and if we get better every single day we will like the results at the end of the season.
“We have had some ups and down this year, but it is just the ebbs and flows of the season. Every team goes through it and we are no different.
“We have a big test coming up Friday night (against the second-place Hearst Lumberjacks), so that’s our focus now.”
The Rock lost blue-liner Ayden Trottier to an upper-body injury Sunday afternoon, but the extent of the damage is not known at this point and he is listed as day-to-day.
Riley stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced to earn his 10th win of the season.
Lally, who turned aside 35 of the 38 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Sunday afternoon’s game were McArthur, Bertrand and Riley … The Rock went 0-3 on the power play Sunday afternoon, while the Vikings went 0-1 with the man advantage … The Rock have traded blue-liner Thomas Sefton to the GOJHL’s Pelham Panthers in exchange for a player development fee … Official attendance at the Massey & District Arena Sunday afternoon was 87 … Sunday’s other action saw the Greater Sudbury Cubs edge the Thunderbirds 5-4 in overtime in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., the Hearst Lumberjacks blank the Gold Miners 6-0 in Kirkland Lake and the Blind River Beavers thump the Rapids 8-2 in French River … The Rock will return to action when they host the Hearst Lumberjacks at the McIntyre Arena on Friday, at 7 p.m.
