Timmins Rock forward Brant Romaniuk is all smiles as he celebrates his 14th goal of the season with teammates, from left, Tenzin Nyman, Ethan Albert and Jack Kelly during the first period of Tuesday night’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Romaniuk’s goal tied things up at 1-1 and the Rock went on to defeat the Rapids 5-2, keeping pace with the Blind River Beavers in the battle for third place in the NOJHL standings. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
While the two points allowed the Rock to keep pace with the Blind River Beavers in the race to third place in the NOJHL standings, it might prove to be a costly victory.
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
The Timmins Rock got a pair of goals from Clark Scaddan as they successfully negotiated the French River Rapids at the McIntyre Arena, Tuesday night.
While the two points allowed the Rock to keep pace with the Blind River Beavers in the race to third place in the NOJHL standings, it might prove to be a costly victory.
Captain Tenzin Nyman left the contest late in the second period after absorbing an awkward hit in the Rock zone and did not return to the ice.
While Nyman appeared to be walking normally following the contest, Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry was not willing to offer an opinion as to how long the 20-year-old blue-liner may be out of the line.
“Lower-body injury, day-to-day,” was how Perry described the condition of the Rock captain following the game.
“Fingers crossed, because we are going through it right now.”
Should Nyman miss a significant amount of time, he would join a talented group of Rock players already on the injury list, prior to Tuesday night’s action.
Up front, the Rock were missing Thomas Beard, Lucas Lowe and Kaeden McArthur, as well as blue-liners Sam Gallagher and Zach Secord.
McArthur (illness) took the warm-up, but was unable to suit up for Tuesday night’s contest.
That resulted in the Rock dressing Timmins Majors (GNU18L) forward Evan Katic who saw action in his first NOJHL contest as an affiliate player, joining teammate Edan Etheridge, who made his fourth appearance with the team.
“He (Katic) practiced today at 3:30 p.m. and K-mac was sick, so it was last minute for him,” Perry said. “He came into the lineup and was playing on the right wing, something he doesn’t do often, but he was great. He is going to be a really, really good player. He did a great job handling those minutes tonight.
“Edan has been fantastic for us. He is a really, really, really good player who has a bright future ahead of him. He is a special talent.”
Following Tuesday’s action, the Rock (30-15-2-1) find themselves seven points behind the third-place Beavers (33-13-2-2) and four points behind the fourth-place Soo Eagles (32-14-0-3) — although they have two games in hand on the former and one on the latter.
“I thought we played a fantastic game,” Perry said, summing up his impression of the Rock effort Tuesday night. “We gave up 11 shots through 50 minutes. You can’t ask for much more than that, especially with the bodies out of our lineup.
“I thought we did a really good job, maybe left a couple (of goals) on the table, a couple of really good chances we could have put in the back of the net, but we got the two points and we needed them really bad.
“I am really proud of the way the guys battled tonight.”
The coach liked what he saw from Scaddan in Tuesday night’s contest.
“He is a consistent producer, probably a point a game, and when we area healthy, he slots down and plays a different role than a goal-scoring role,” Perry said.
“I was super happy to see him get a couple of goals. He is a great kid and a pleasure to coach.”
The two-goal scorer wasn’t the only Rock player who had the coach smiling after Tuesday’s game.
“Reece Liu, what a player,” Perry said. “We needed a play and he came up big for us. He is so tenacious. You can’t say enough good things about that kid and what he means to our team.”
The Rock were perfect on the penalty kill Tuesday night and even added a shorthanded marker.
“Our kill did a great job tonight,” Perry said. “We killed them all off and Poaner (Travis Poan) was fantastic tonight, on the kill and five-on-five.
“We got really good minutes out of all our guys tonight. I thought (Rock goalie) Graham Gee did a really good job, especially in the third period shutting them down and I really liked Cyrsy’s (Braedyn Cyr) game on the back end.”
The Rapids got on the scoreboard first Tuesday night, as Michael Leech netted his fifth goal of the season 3:20 into the opening period.
Brant Romaniuk’s 14th goal of the season got the Rock back on even terms just over five minutes later.
Ryan Armitage then followed with a power-play marker, his 14th tally of the campaign, to put the Rock in front 2-1 heading into the first intermission.
Alexis Tremblay then added a shorthanded marker, his 13th goal of the season, eight minutes into the middle frame. That goal would stand up to be the game-winner.
The Rapids managed to close the gap two minutes later, as Noah Szczurek netted his eighth goal of the season.
The Rock took a 3-2 lead into the third period and got a pair of goals from Scaddan to sew up the victory.
His 15th goal of the season gave the Rock a little breathing room and his 16th of the campaign, scored into an empty French River net with goalie Zachary Burleigh on the bench in favour of an extra attacker, closed out the scoring.
An unusual play in the third period saw Rock forward Jack Kelly lose the blade from one of his skates, make his way back to the bench on one skate and return to action a few minutes later only to lose the blade one more time.
Gee stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced to earn his ninth win of the season.
Burleigh, who turned aside 34 of the 38 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The Daily Press three stars of the game were Scaddan, Tremblay and Liu (two assists) … The Rock went 1-4 on the power play and scored a shorthanded goal, while the Rapids were 0-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the McIntyre Arena was 385 … Tuesday’s only other action saw the Beavers upset the NOJHL-leading Greater Sudbury Cubs 7-4 in Blind River … The Rock will head out on a two-game road trip that will see them take on the Thunderbirds in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., on Friday and the Eagles in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on Saturday. The last home game of the regular season will see the Rock host the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday, March 16, at 3:30 p.m.
