Timmins Rock blue-liner Elijah Pool battles with Iroquois Falls Storm forward Mathieu Roy in front of goalie Dryden Riley’s crease during Thursday night’s NOJHL contest at the Jus Jordan Arena. The Rock went on to defeat the Storm 4-1 and extend their point streak to nine games. NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
Photos: Turnbull’s Northern Photography
IROQUOIS FALLS — The Timmins Rock weathered a determined Storm attack at the Jus Jordan Arena Thursday night and emerged with a 4-1 victory.
While it extended the Rock’s point streak to nine games, coach and general manager Brandon Perry was not happy with effort — or lack thereof — he saw from his squad.
“It was the worst game we have played all season, by far,” he said.
The Rock who normally pride themselves on taking the play to their opponents were outshot in all three periods Thursday night, relying on goalie Dryden Riley to keep them in the contest.
“It was just the worst effort all year,” Perry said.
“We had no compete, we couldn’t pass the puck and just didn’t execute anything. We had selfish players and guys weren’t backchecking. It was a whole combination of stuff.”
The Storm hit the scoreboard first Thursday night, taking a 1-0 lead on a Isaiah Felix marker, his first goal of the season for the blue-liner.
Harry Clark’s eighth goal of the season 45 seconds into the middle frame got the Rock back on even terms.
And Thomas Beard followed with what would prove to be the game-winning goal, his sixth tally of the campaign, less than two minutes later.
Mason Svarich then added a power-play marker, his 11th goal of the season, to put the Rock up 3-1 heading into the second intermission.
Nolan Ring’s sixth goal of the season shortly past the midway point of the third period closed out the scoring, giving the Rock their 4-1 victory — their eighth in their past nine games.
The Rock had an opportunity to add to their lead 20 seconds after Ring’s goal, but Svarich was denied on a penalty shot attempt by Storm goalie Connor Hatfield.
The Rock won’t have a lot of time to correct the things that didn’t go well Thursday night, as they will be back on the ice in Kirkland Lake Saturday for their fifth-straight road game before returning home to host the West Division-leading Greater Sudbury Cubs at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday, at 3 p.m.
“We are going to skate Friday, at 3:30 p.m., but one skate is not going to do it,” Perry said.
“We just have to decide what kind of team we want to be, show up every single night and if we don’t it’s not going to be easy.”
As unhappy as he was with the effort he saw from his squad, Perry acknowledged the Storm played a strong game.
“Give them a lot of credit, they played extremely hard,” he said.
“They beat us to every loose puck, they were physical and won all the one-on-one battles. They won face-offs and they played well, they really did.”
As one might surmise, the list of Rock players who impressed their coach Thursday night was a short one.
“Our goalie (Riley), obviously, was outstanding, probably the only reason we won the game,” Perry said.
“I thought Thomas Beard was solid all night, I thought Hayden Rynard was solid all night, but other than that there wasn’t much there.”
The Rock have endured a number of injuries on the back end all season and two key D-men went down during Thursday night’s contest.
Both Kyle Trottier and Chase Longhurst-McIntyre left the game with upper-body injuries.
“I don’t think they are going to be day-to-day, but there is hope, I guess,” Perry said.
Trottier had just been back in the lineup for three games after missing more than a month with an upper-body injury.
“It’s not good back there, we are really thin,” Perry said.
Riley, who stopped 35 of the 36 shots he faced, earned his fifth win of the season.
Hatfield, who turned aside 19 of the 23 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
NOJHL NOTES — The three stars of the game were Rock blue-liner Tenzin Nyman (two assists), Felix and Riley … The Rock went 1-2 on the power play, while the Storm were 0-4 with the man advantage … Official attendance at the Jus Jordan Arena was 561 … The Rock will take on the Gold Miners at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex on Saturday, at 7 p.m. The next home game will be on Sunday when the Rock host the Greater Sudbury Cubs at the McIntyre Arena, at 3 p.m.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
