Timmins Rock blue-liner Liam Major reaches in to disrupt the shot attempt of Hearst Lumberjacks forward Theo Bourdon-Lemoyne during Friday night’s NOJHL contest at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre. The Lumberjacks scored five power-play goals and went on to defeat the Rock 7-3. Photo by NORTHERN LIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHY /FOR NOJHL NETWORK
Brandon Perry: ‘It was an embarrassing night for the Timmins Rock organization, all around.’
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
HEARST — An inability to stay out of the sin bin and a disastrous penalty kill added up to one of the most embarrassing losses in Timmins Rock history at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre, Friday night.
The Lumberjacks went five for seven on the power play, while handing the Rock a 7-3 defeat.
As one might expect, Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was far from impressed with the collection of individuals who were wearing white uniforms with gold and maroon trim in the contest.
Clearly, calling them a team would have given the 18 skaters and two goalies more credit than they deserved.
“They (the Lumberjacks) were 62.5 per cent on the power play,” Perry said. “That’s unheard of, that’s embarrassing. There is no other way to put it.
“It was an embarrassing night for the Timmins Rock organization, all around.”
With Friday night’s victory, the Lumberjacks sport a record of 8-1-0-0 — tops in the NOJHL — but the coach is not convinced his team’s setback was the result of a lack of talent, or that they were facing a superior opponent.
“That is not even close to the problem,” Perry said. “We have the talent. This is a character issue. That’s what we have. We are just selfish. We are pouty and it is just a joke around here.”
Neither Perry and his coaching staff, nor Rock fans who made the three-hour trek to Hearst to watch the contest in person or the ones who opted to view it on FloHockey, were laughing, however.
Pressed on how he intends to address a “character” issue, the coach offered a simple solution.
“Some guys will change (their attitudes), some guys won’t,” Perry said. “The ones who won’t have got to move on, got to go play somewhere else.”
Surely there must have been some positives, glimmers of hope, no matter how tiny.
“No, we just weren’t anywhere close to where we need to be at this point in the season,” Perry said. “Our attention to details was lacking so much. Players wonder why they don’t kill penalties. We were 0-5 on the power play, we were 3-8 on the penalty kill. The same guys on the power play are the same guys who (penalty) kill. So, maybe that’s a spot to look at.
“We went over the PK (penalty kill) before the game, this is what we have to defend, but nobody defended it, but everybody wants to play on it. ‘Why don’t I kill penalties?’ Well, that right there is why they don’t.”
There was one part of the Rock team that earned a little less scorn from their coach following Friday night’s contest.
“Listen, I don’t want to beat up on our D (blue-line) because we have been playing with four D for the past four games here and two of them are playing hurt,” Perry said.
“We had two legit healthy D and they were the only D who practiced all week and they are absolutely exhausted. So, I don’t want to beat up on them too bad, but it was not good enough back there are things were worse up front.”
The Rock dressed New Liskeard Cubs (GNU18L) blue-liner Liam Major as an affiliate player for Friday night’s contest.
Friday night’s contest saw the Rock fall behind early, with Henry Ouellet’s power-play marker, his third goal of the season, giving the Lumberjacks a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the opening period.
Hugo Allard added an even-strength tally, his first goal of the season, and the Lumberjacks took a 2-0 advantage into the first intermission.
They doubled their lead to 4-0 in the middle frame, with Mathieu Comeau scoring his eighth goal of the campaign, a power-play marker, and Chase Thompson adding his fourth goal of the season.
The Rock finally got on the scoreboard less than a minute later, as Brant Romaniuk netted his fifth goal of the campaign.
Trailing 4-1 heading into the second intermission, Rock fans still had a little room for optimism.
That was quickly quelled early in the third period, however, as the Lumberjacks added to their lead.
Thompson scored his second of the night and fifth of the campaign and Ouellet followed with his second of the night and fourth of the season.
Nicholas Schwertner closed the gap a little for the Rock, as he scored his first goal of the season and Evan Katic followed with his second tally of the campaign.
But Thompson quashed any hopes of a late Rock rally, as he completed his hat-trick by netting his sixth goal of the season, a power-play marker, to close out the scoring.
Things will not get any easier for the Rock, as they will have a rematch with the Lumberjacks to open NOJHL Showcase at the Countryside Sports Complex, on Tuesday.
They will then take on Saint Andrew’s College in their final game of the NOJHL Showcase, on Wednesday.
“Our guys just need to play better,” Perry said. “They need to play harder and pay attention to what they are doing. Our star players, our top players, need to stop being babies. Our guys further down in the lineup need to learn the system.
“There are just issues everywhere you look. We had some success last weekend (winning two out of three games), but we didn’t play great. We didn’t practice good this week. Our power play was a joke in practice Thursday. What happens tonight, same thing?
“Our guys don’t even get it. They think everybody else is the problem. There is just so much finger pointing. ‘That guy’s the problem, not me.’ Well, you were on the ice for every single goal (against), so maybe you should look in the mirror.
“There is a lot of selfishness going on and everybody is looking to blame everybody else, instead of taking ownership for themselves.
“Five years of coaching this team, that’s the most embarrassed I have been.”
On the bright side, with a record of 4-3-0-0 the Rock still sported a record over .500 and they were in a four-way tie for fifth place in the NOJHL standings following the completion of action, Friday night.
Lumberjacks goalie Alexandre Boivin stopped 36 of the 39 shots the Rock directed his way to earn his fifth win of the season.
Rock goalie Frédéric Cousineau, who blocked 35 of the 42 shots he faced, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Thompson, Ouellet and Comeau … The Rock went 0-5 on the power play, while the Lumberjacks were 5-8 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Claude Larose Recreation Centre was 605 … Friday’s other action saw the Iroquois Falls Storm upset the Paper Kings 5-4 in Espanola, the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners take down the Voodoos 3-2 in overtime in Powassan and the Rapids get past the Soo Eagles 3-2 in overtime in French River … The Rock will take on the Lumberjacks at the NOJHL Showcase in Sudbury, on Tuesday. Their next home game will be on Sunday, Oct. 12, when they host the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena, at 1 p.m.
