Timmins Rock forward Victor Hourtouat, in white, and Beavers forward Wyatt Jarratt do battle along the boards during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the Blind River Community Centre. It took overtime, but the Rock rolled to their 14th-straight victory, a 2-1 decision over the Beavers. Photo by Hélène Rancourt /NOJHL Network
The Rock (20-5-0-1) now find themselves just one point behind the Greater Sudbury Cubs (20-6-1-1) atop the NOJHL standings — and they have two games in hand on their rivals
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
BLIND RIVER — It took overtime but the Timmins Rock rolled to their 14th-straight win, as they edged the Beavers 2-1 at the Community Centre, Sunday afternoon.
The victory wrapped up a three-game weekend road trip that saw the Rock top the Eagles 6-2 in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Friday night, and the Thunderbirds 6-3 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Saturday night.
And the Rock (20-5-0-1) now find themselves just one point behind the Greater Sudbury Cubs (20-6-1-1) atop the NOJHL standings — and they have two games in hand on their rivals.
Even though the Rock added three more victories to their current string on the weekend, coach and general manager Brandon Perry felt to some extent his squad’s success came despite their effort not because of it.
“We were tired, for sure,” he said. “We weren’t very good in the first period. The second and third periods, I thought we played great. We hemmed them in the whole time, but we were just tired, mental stuff, like not burying our chances. We had a ton of chances. Our passes were off. It’s a game of inches and everything was like an inch off.
“Blind River did a good job, obviously. They played hard and we were a little tired today, but I really liked our game in the second and third periods today.”
Ryan Armitage, better known for his efforts on the penalty kill, turned out to be the overtime hero for the Rock Sunday afternoon.
His goal 2:40 into the extra period, on a nice setup from captain Braedyn Cyr, proved to be the difference maker.
“He was awesome,” Perry said. “Army does so much for us. He kills penalties, plays on the power play. He is a skilled, talented player. He is a power forward with good hands and good finish.
“He had been getting a lot of chances lately, but the puck had just not been going in. So, it was nice to see him get two this weekend.”
The two teams exchanged first-period goals, with Ryder Hill netting his fourth of the season to put the Beavers in front 1-0 and blue-liner Jack Quevillon answering with his third of the campaign for the Rock to tie things up.
“It was a Timmins Rock entry,” Perry said, describing how the play developed. “We work on four-man entries often, with our D jumping up into the rush. We had a good break out and Ryan (Power) got to the middle of the ice and kicked it out to Beardo (Thomas Beard). They were posted up and he hit the fourth guy (Quevillon) who was late into the zone and it was a beautiful goal.
“The way we play, structurally as a team, if everybody does things the right way, it allows everybody to produce. It is certainly nice when guys step up and contribute in ways they normally don’t.”
Neither team was able to find the back of the net either in the middle frame, or the third period, thanks in large part to some strong goaltending by the Rock’s Frédéric Cousineau and the Beavers’ Mason Janicki.
“Freddy was really good in net for us,” Perry said. “He has been great, really great. I think this was his ninth win in a row. I thought he was really good Saturday night, as well, but he wasn’t happy with his game. He is kind of a perfectionist that way. He is really hard on himself sometimes, but he has been really fantastic.”
Cousineau stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced to earn his 12th win of the season for the Rock.
Janicki, who turned aside 48 of the 50 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
ROCK 6 T-BIRDS 3
Kaeden McArthur scored four goals to help lead the Rock to a 6-3 victory over the Soo Thunderbirds at the John Rhodes Community Centre, Saturday night.
“Kaeden was awesome Saturday night,” Perry said. “He scored two really nice goals and two empty netters. He was all over the ice all night.
“I really liked K-Mac’s game all weekend, really.”
Heading into the game, McArthur had more assists than goals but with linemate Brant Romaniuk off with Canada East preparing for the Junior ‘A’ World Challenge in Trois-Rivières, Que., it was his turn to fulfill the role of finisher.
McArthur and Lucas Lowe were joined on the Rock’s top line by Maxfeld Shin for the three-game road trip.
“He was great,” Perry said. “We have a lot of good players. We are really deep up front. We just fill holes when we need to, our guys can do it. They are skilled enough, they are talented enough and they play hard enough. We have guys who can play anywhere in our lineup.”
McArthur’s 17th goal of the season, just 41 seconds into Saturday night’s contest, got the Rock off and rolling.
Ryan Armitage added his fifth goal of the campaign and blue-liner Ben Hugessen supplied his initial NOJHL goal to give the Rock a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
“It was a really good read by Ben,” Perry said, describing the play that led to the newest Rock blue-liner’s goal. “He was not brought in here to score goals. Obviously, he was brought in here to defend, but K.J. (Kimani Eccleston) had the puck and drove it deep into the zone and made a beautiful pass to Ben.”
Hugessen, a 6-2, right-shot 2006-birth-year blue-liner, was acquired from the CCHL’s Hawkesbury Hawks (19, 0-0-0, 8) in exchange for a player development fee on Wednesday.
Perry expects him to fill a role similar to the one William Lobanov occupied before he was dealt to the Beavers in exchange for a player development fee, on Nov. 20.
Like Lobanov, Hugessen has been paired with Ben Climenhaga to form a shutdown pair of the Rock’s back end.
McArthur’s second goal of the night and 18th of the campaign added to the Rock lead six minutes into the middle frame.
But the Thunderbirds, who rarely lose on home ice, staged a comeback that fell just short of getting them back on even terms.
Vincent Bondy, with his sixth goal of the season, Aiden Atkinson, with his 10th tally of the campaign, and James Legler, with a shorthanded marker, his 14th goal of the season scored within a span of 12 minutes to close the gap to 4-3 heading into the third period.
That’s the way the score remained until McArthur deposited his 19th goal of the season into an empty Thunderbirds net with goalie Ryan Hicks on the bench in favour of an extra attacker and just 1:05 remaining in regulation.
Having completed his hat-trick, McArthur then duplicated the feat with Hicks once again on the bench and 38 seconds remaining on the clock, to net his 20th goal of the season.
McArthur’s four goals aside, Perry’s assessment of the Rock’s overall effort Saturday night was blunt: “We weren’t very good. That was probably one of the worst games we have played, certainly in this 14-game winning streak, if not the season.
“We were up 3-0 in the first period and they had outshot us 15-6. They were dominating us. We just capitalized. We got three chances and they all went in.
“The T-birds were very good. They were ready for us, obviously, after the last game we had played against them at the Mac (a 9-2 Rock victory on Nov. 14).
Cousineau stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced to earn his 11th win of the season.
Hicks, who turned aside 26 of the 30 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
ROCK 6 EAGLES 2
The Rock kicked off their three-game weekend road trip with a 6-2 win over the Soo Eagles at Pullar Stadium, Friday night.
Shin and Thomas Beard both scored a pair of goals to help kick start the Rock offence.
Shin’s fifth goal of the season put the Rock in front 1-0 midway through the opening period and Beard’s ninth tally of the campaign doubled the advantage before the first intermission.
Travis Poan’s first goal of the season, a marker originally credited to Victor Hourtouat, expanded the Rock lead to 3-0 eight-and-a-half minutes into the middle frame. That tally would stand up to be the game-winner.
The Eagles finally got on the scoreboard three-and-a-half minutes later when Alex Povorozniouk struck for a power-play marker, his fifth goal of the season.
But the Rock kept rolling and got that goal back and added another for good measure before the second intermission.
Beard netted his second goal of the night and 10th of the season and Shin followed with his second tally of the contest and sixth of the campaign.
The second period also featured a little fisticuffs, with Hourtouat and Poan, of the Rock, and Dominic Cicco and Trent Hoppe, of the Eagles, each being assessed five-minute majors for fighting and game misconducts. Hoppe also received a two-minute minor for roughing.
The third period saw the two squads exchange goals, with Ilian Danilov netting his third of the season for the Eagles and Kaeden McArthur answering with his 16th of the campaign, a power-play marker, for the Rock.
“Lowe, K-Mac and Shin played great games for us Friday night,” Perry said. “Beardo had a couple of goals, which was nice to see. He was great all weekend, as well, and Ayden Mullen was fantastic between the pipes.
“The whole team played good. It was just solid, solid hockey. Pullar Stadium is a hard place to play. The Eagles are a physical team and it is always a battle when you go in there.”
Ayden Mullen stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced to pick up his eighth win of the season for the Rock.
Jace Knoerle, who turned aside 38 of the 44 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss for the Eagles.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Sunday afternoon’s game were Armitage, Janicki and Hill. McArthur, Legler and Hugessen were chosen Saturday and Shin, Beard and Danilov were selected Friday. Both the Rock and the Beavers went 0-2 on the power play Sunday. Saturday, the Rock went 0-2 on the power play, while the Thunderbirds were 0-1 with the man advantage, although they did net a shorthanded marker. Friday, the Rock went 1-3 on the power play, while the Eagles were 1-2 with the man advantage … Official attendance at Blind River Community Centre, on Sunday, was 158, while 101 fans watched Saturday’s game at the John Rhodes Community Centre and 698 fans were in attendance at Friday’s game at Pullar Stadium … Sunday’s other action saw the Iroquois Falls Storm edge the Gold Miners 4-3 in Kirkland Lake and the Espanola Paper Kings double up the Rapids 4-2 in French River … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they host the Blind River Beavers at the McIntyre Arena, at 7:30 p.m.
