Iroquois Falls Storm forward Alexandre St. Pierre attempts to cut around Timmins Rock blue-liner Brady Bouchard while pursuing the puck during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the Jus Jordan Arena. St. Pierre scored a goal to help the Storm knock off the Rock 4-2. It was the second-straight loss for the Rock and their fourth setback in the past five games. Photo by SUBMITTED /NOJHL Network
Sixteen-year-old goalie Ayden Mullen was between the pipes for both Rock losses on the weekend — his ninth and 10th starts since in the 12 games since starting goalie Frédéric Cousineau suffered a lower-body injury
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
IROQUOIS FALLS — A full week of practice failed to produce the results the Timmins Rock had been hoping for — a pair of weekend victories, one win or even a single point.
Instead, Rock fans watched their favourite NOJHL squad drop a 4-1 decision to the Storm at the Jus Jordan Arena, Sunday afternoon, after falling 4-1 to the Lumberjacks in Hearst, Friday night.
“We had a lot of work to do, for sure,” said Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry, when asked if it’s back to the drawing board for another full week of practice as the team prepares to take on the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake, on Friday.
“We didn’t execute on the power play and we didn’t get a save, today.”
Sixteen-year-old goalie Ayden Mullen was between the pipes for both Rock losses on the weekend — his ninth and 10th starts since in the 12 games since starting goalie Frédéric Cousineau suffered a lower-body injury in a 3-1 win over the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake, on Jan. 4.
“No,” Perry said, when asked if the workload is starting to wear Mullen down, given his age and the pressure of carry a team looking to win an NOJHL championship on his back.
“He got five shots in the first period against Hearst and eight shots this afternoon in the first period, then eight shots in the second period. We are not a team that gives up a lot of shots. All he has got to do is stop them, stop the easy ones. He just can’t do it right now.”
With Cousineau out, the Rock signed former Storm goalie Virgil Sausset Plateaux, who has won both of his starts and produced a 1.00 goals against average and .966 save percentage.
“It might be time to look at that for sure,” Perry said, when it might be time for Sausset Plateaux to carry more of the workload as the Rock wait for Cousineau’s return to the crease.
“We have got to do something.”
Perry acknowledged losing to the Storm in Iroquois Falls, Sunday afternoon, hurts a little more than dropping a decision to the Lumberjacks in Hearst, Friday night.
“It’s not an effort thing,” he said. “I thought we played a great game in Hearst, Friday night, effort wise, but we went 0-10 on the power play, and I didn’t like our first period, today. The second and third periods, I thought we played really hard and dominated.
“We just have to bury our chances. Their goalie (Nathan Boudreau) stood on his head and ours couldn’t give us an easy save. He (Boudreau) was stopping everything. The shots were 52-19 (in favour of the Rock) but there was no way that team got 19 shots on us.”
The Storm took a 1-0 lead during the opening period on Sunday, with Rafek Dianov scoring his seventh goal of the season.
Carter Jamieson’s first marker of the campaign doubled the Iroquois Falls lead early in the middle frame.
The Rock got that one back 35 seconds later, when Diego Da Silva netted his 25th goal of the season.
But Lucas Willoughby’s 10th tally of the campaign restored the Storm’s two-goal advantage heading into the second intermission.
Alexandre St. Pierre then extended the Iroquois Falls lead when he netted his ninth goal of the season nine minutes into the third period.
Maxx Hamelin’s eighth goal of the season, with just under five minutes remaining in regulation, gave Rock fans a glimmer of hope, but that would prove to be as close as they would come to getting back on even terms, leaving the final score 4-2 in favour of the Storm.
Perry is hoping another full week of practice, as the Rock prepare to take on the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake, Friday night, will produce better results.
“We need to practice better, for sure, and our guys need to take things more seriously than they have been in the past three weeks,” he said.
“It starts there, execution wise, in practice. That will lead to better execution in games, but the puck is just not going in for us right now. It is what it is. We are just going through it.”
With plenty of offensive talent on the roster, the Rock have tried juggling their lines — without much success, either Friday night or Sunday afternoon.
“(Matteo) Paradiso (upper-body injury) and (Maxfeld) Shin (upper-body injury) are out and those are two big pieces up front,” Perry said. “We have been playing with 11 forwards, mixing and matching the last couple of games but guys just need to play to their abilities. It’s plain and simple, if they play as good as they can and as hard as they can, we are not going to have any issues beating anybody.”
The Rock lost two of those 11 forwards, Ryan Armitage and Ryan Power, during a first-period brawl, as they each received five-minute majors for fighting and game misconducts. Martin Brassard and Jacob Demers, of the Storm, were also ejected after receiving five-minute majors for fighting and game misconducts for their parts in the brawl.
An incident after the buzzer had sounded to signal the end of the game saw Da Silva handed a double-minor penalty for attempt to injure/deliberate injury and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“I don’t think so, but we will see, there were a couple of fights and some other stuff there,” Perry said, when asked if there were any fresh injury or suspension concerns coming out of either weekend game.
“(Forward Travis) Poan is sick, (blue-liner Zach) Secord is sick, so hopefully there is nothing new from today.
Boudreau turned aside 50 of the 52 shots the Rock directed his way to earn his second win of the season.
Mullen, who stopped 15 of the 19 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of Sunday afternoon’s game were Boudreau (50 saves), Jamieson (one goal, one assist) and Willoughby (one goal, two assists) … the Rock went 0-7 on the power play, while the Storm were 0-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Jus Jordan Arena was 346 … Sunday’s only other contest saw the Beavers top the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 5-1 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.
