Timmins Rock blue-liner MacKenzie Souter moves in to check Kirkland Lake Gold Miners Mason Brownlee during the first period of Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL exhibition contest at the McIntyre Arena. The Rock went to defeat the Gold Miners 6-4 and sweep their two-game weekend exhibition series following Saturday night’s 3-2 win at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
The Rock took a 4-3 lead in the opening period, three times overcoming one-goal Kirkland Lake leads
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.
The Timmins Rock wrapped up their two-game exhibition campaign with a 6-4 win over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena, Sunday afternoon.
Sunday’s victory came on the heels of a 3-2 overtime triumph over the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex, Saturday night.
Sloppy might be the best word to describe the play of both NOJHL squads, on Sunday — especially in the opening period when neither Rock goalie Logan Coates nor Gold Miners netminder Morgan Hyndman got much support from their teammates.
Even though there were no points on the line, Rock coach and general manager Sheldon Reasbeck was happy to get his first victory for the home side at the McIntyre Arena.
“I have been waiting since I got named head coach,” he said. “I have always loved this rink, growing up and playing against Timmins over the years, but coaching front of a home Timmins crowd for the first time was pretty special.”
Reasbeck, who was originally named an assistant coach under former Rock bench boss Brandon Perry, before the latter moved on to take over the men’s hockey program at Queen’s University, has, of course, plenty of wins at the McIntyre Arena with the GNU18L’s Kapuskasing Flyers.
With two exhibition wins under his belt, the coach realizes his Rock squad is a work in progress.
“The whole goal right now, is to build a championship culture in the dressing room,” Reasbeck said. “The Timmins Rock are a championship level team.
“So, what I really liked over the weekend is the comradery with the boys, their will to play together, as one unit, not be selfish, but rather selfless, again, just having a little bit of time to work on our systems, our structure. That is coming into play, although sometimes we forget it.
“Our work ethic has been through the roof, as well, which is another positive thing.”
The Rock took a 4-3 lead in the opening period, three times overcoming one-goal Kirkland Lake leads.
Tanner Adams, Jordan McLeod, Edan Etheridge and Evan Katic supplied the firepower for the Rock, while Owen O’Grady, Nathan Harper and Lex Lamontagne replied for the Gold Miners.
Things settled down once play began in the second period, with both coaches reminding their squads defense isn’t just what you find around de-house.
“What I said was to basically find calm amongst the chaos,” Reasbeck said. “It was a physical game, but you still need to find the calm and execute Rock hockey. That was the message after the first period and we kind of settled down and added structure to our game. Then, we were rolling.”
The middle frame saw each team find the back of the net once, with Matteo Paradiso adding to the Rock total and Harper answering with his second goal of the game.
Ashton Beriana then closed out the scoring in the third period, making the final 6-4 in favour of the Rock.
“With this group, we have a lot of skill, a lot of work ethic with that kind of dog-like mentality,” Reasbeck said, when asked what brand of hockey Rock fans can expect to watch in 2026-27.
“In terms of being an offensive or defensive team, we want to play a 200-foot game, with every single player being able to defend, play in the D zone, play in the neutral zone, play in the offensive zone. We want kind of a well-rounded game from every player. That’s what we need moving forward.”
The Rock have a mix of about 50-50 in terms of returning players and newcomers, but Reasbeck isn’t anticipating it will take a lot of time for them to gel as a unified unit.
“We are going to be solid,” he said. “The day the boys met, they gelled right off the bat. We have a great culture in our room right now, a great vibe.”
Reasbeck and his staff have a pretty good idea who they expect to step into leadership roles in 2026-27, but they weren’t about to let the cat out of the bag on Sunday.
“It is a work in progress,” he said. “We have an idea of who we want and they will be named this week.”
With their two-game exhibition campaign in the books, the Rock will spend the week getting ready to open the regular-season schedule with three-straight games on the road — starting with a contest against the Storm in Iroquois Falls, on Friday, at 7 p.m.
Reasbeck’s path to becoming coach and general manager of the Rock took some unusual twists and turns along the way.
“With me and Brandon Perry being very similar coaches, who worked together in the past, I felt like I was ready right off the bat,” he said, when asked about being elevated for an assistant coaching role so soon after joining the organization.
“He has helped me through the process, but we coach a very similar structured game and we have the same values as coaches. The Rock have a great organization.”
Even more unusual was how Reasbeck made the move from coaching the Flyers to Iceland — and no, he doesn’t have any Icelandic background.
“I brought a group of high school students, 17 hockey players, for a cultural exchange,” he said. “We ran their minor hockey for a week. Then I made the connections from there. We got talking and the head coaching position was available.
“I was interested, went there for two years, worked with their national program, their men’s and women’s pro teams and it was just a great experience.”
