Timmins Rock players, from left, Ben Hugessen, Ben Climenhaga and Maxx Hamelin celebrate the latter’s 16th goal of the season during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Hamelin’s goal tied things up at 1-1 in a game the Rock would eventually go on to win 6-2. The victory allowed the Rock to move into a second-place tie with the Hearst Lumberjacks in the NOJHL standings. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
The Greater Sudbury Cubs had not lost in regulation in their previous 27 games, compiling a record of 24-0-1-2 during that stretch
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
A pair of impressive weekend victories helped the Timmins Rock move into a second-place tie with the Hearst Lumberjacks in the NOJHL standings.
After blanking the Powassan Voodoos 5-0 at home, Friday night, the Rock caught the NOJHL-leading Greater Sudbury Cubs at the end of a three-game weekend road trip, on Sunday, posting a 6-2 victory at the McIntyre Arena.
While both the Rock (33-12-0-3) and the Lumberjacks (33-10-0-3) both have 69 points, Hearst has two games in hand.
It is worth noting, however, the Lumberjacks have a much more difficult schedule, playing road games against the Soo Eagles, the Blind River Beavers, the Soo Eagles, the Powassan Voodoos, the French River Rapids and the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners.
Meanwhile, half of the Rock’s four remaining games will be played at the McIntyre Arena — both against the Gold Miners — while the remaining two will be played in Kirkland Lake and in Espanola, against the Paper Kings, a possible first-round playoff opponent.
The Cubs had not lost in regulation in their previous 27 games, compiling a record of 24-0-1-2 during that stretch.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was certainly pleased with 99 percent of what he saw from his team on the weekend.
“It has been a great weekend and, obviously, I am super happy with the results,” he said.
“Our guys played so hard. It was just effort and being willing to do what it takes. That’s all it was, just commitment to playing extremely, extremely hard, being in the right place at the right time.”
Things did not start off overly well Sunday afternoon, as blue-liner Spencer Horgan’s power-play marker, his 17th goal of the season, gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead 2:31 into the opening period.
But the Rock were able to tie things up less than three minutes later, as Maxx Hamelin scored his ninth goal in the past eight games, giving him 16 on the season.
Lucas Lowe’s 10th tally of the campaign then gave the Rock a lead they would not surrender.
That spelled the end of Greater Sudbury starting goalie Iain Wintle’s afternoon, as he was given the hook with Matthew Vahramian coming on in relief.
And Evan Katic’s power-play marker, his seventh goal of the season, made it a 3-1 hockey game heading into the first intermission.
The Rock added to their advantage in the middle frame, as Maxfeld Shin netted his 11th marker of the campaign.
Horgan’s second power-play marker of the afternoon and 18th goal of the season gave the Cubs some hope 46 seconds into the third period.
But former Cubs blue-liner Brady Bouchard silenced that hope when he netted a power-play marker of his own, his first goal since signing with the Rock.
Kaeden McArthur then supplied the icing on the cake as he deposited his team-leading 34th goal of the season into an empty Sudbury net with Vahramian on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
A sliding McArthur followed the puck into the net for good measure after being pulled down by a Greater Sudbury defender.
The Rock coach had little difficulty finding players to single out for a little extra praise following the contest.
“Maxx Hamelin just seems to be scoring for us,” Perry said. “That’s what we need and that’s what he is here for. He has been great.
“People forget (Rock goalie) Ayden Mullen is just 16 years old. I have been hard on him and he knows that and he is extremely hard on himself, but what a great weekend for him. We have a ton of confidence in him. I am so happy for him.
“We talk about people who care and Evan Katic shows up every day with a good attitude. He always wants to get better and works extremely hard. He has a big frame (6-2, 167 pounds) and he is starting to have a little bit more physicality in him. You look at a big kid and you expect that but we don’t want him to expend energy in that part of the game, but he has been great for us all season.”
Even though the Rock’s power play produced a pair of goals, in 10 opportunities, Perry describes it as a “work in progress,” with plenty of fine tuning still needed.
“I didn’t like our puck movement, but we got two (goals) and we won the game,” he said. “I am not going to be too hard on it. We will watch the video and we will clean it up. You don’t typically see that much pressure out of a PK (penalty kill) and they cheat for it. You have to think about a lot of things with them.”
Bouchard had one of the two Rock power-play markers and his celebration, directed at the Cubs bench, was certainly emotional.
“I really respect the players on the other side but to get a goal like that definitely meant a lot to me,” he said. “It gave our team a boost in momentum. We were coming out of a bit of a slump, so it is nice to move forward on a positive note, especially with playoffs coming soon.”
Bouchard had a clear strategy in mind when he loaded up to get the shot off.
“One of my friends is a goalie and he always tells me to go low glove or low blocker,” he said. “So, I just took the shot and things worked out.”
Bouchard is now 17 games into his Rock career, but he still has some pretty good friends on the Cubs, two of whom sought Bouchard out after the final buzzer to exchange hugs.
“Daks Klinkhammer is the captain of the team and we developed a pretty good friendship over the last two years,” Bouchard said.
“Noah Kohan is a guy I have played with my whole life. So, hockey aside, he is one of my closest friends and I imagine I will see him for summers to come for the rest of our lives.
“You make so many friendships that are going to last a lifetime.”
Mullen turned aside 28 of the 30 shots the Cubs directed his way to earn his 15th win of the season.
Wintle, who stopped five of the seven shots he faced in his 13:18 of work, was tagged with the loss.
Vahramian blocked 20 of the 23 shots directed his way in his 44:13
of relief work.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of Sunday’s game were Hamelin (one goal, two assists), Mullen (28 saves) and McArthur (one goal, two assists) … The Rock went 2-10 on the power play Sunday, while the Cubs went 2-5 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday was 720 … Sunday’s other action saw the Powassan Voodoos blank the Storm 6-0 in Iroquois Falls and the Soo Thunderbirds thump the Beavers 11-3 in Blind River … The Rock will return to action on Friday when they take on the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex in Kirkland Lake, at 7 p.m. The next home game will see the Rock entertain the Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena, on Sunday, at 1 p.m.
