Timmins Rock forward Diego Da Silva urges the crowd to help him celebrate his first-period goal during Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Da Silva had two goals and two assists to help lead the Rock to a 9-2 win over the visiting Iroquois Falls Storm — extending their winning streak to 19 games. Photo by THOMAS PERRY /The Daily Press
Kaeden McArthur, Diego Da Silva and Lucas Lowe combine for four goals and three assists in 9-2 win over the Iroquois Falls Storm
Thomas Perry
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
For the second-straight game, the line of Kaeden McArthur, Diego Da Silva and Lucas Lowe turned in a dominant offensive performance for the streaking Timmins Rock.
The trio combined for four goals and three assists to help lead the Rock to a 9-2 win over the Iroquois Falls Storm at the McIntyre Arena, Sunday afternoon.
The three points McArthur picked up Sunday afternoon, give him 171 regular-season points as a member of the Rock, ranking him second to the 182 Derek Seguin accumulated in a Rock uniform (2017-21).
“It feels pretty good, especially to do it for my hometown team,” he said. “It feels good to be up there and show what I have got and it felt really nice to do it on home ice.”
It was the 19th-consecutive win for the Rock (25-5-0-1) who defeated the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 8-3 at the McIntyre Arena Friday night and remain two points behind the Greater Sudbury Cubs (25-6-1-2) — but still have three games in hand.
Of course the Rock’s No. 1 line had plenty of help Sunday afternoon from their teammates, as 11 of the squad’s other skaters registered points in the one-sided victory.
Da Silva, who had a hat-trick Friday night, got the puck rolling for the Rock when he netted his 20th goal of the season 5:57 into the opening period.
Maxx Hamelin, playing in his third game since being acquired from the MJHL’s Winnipeg Monarchs, then added the first goal of his NOJHL career less than two minutes later.
While the Rock outshot the Storm 21-5 in the frame, they just carried a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
Six unanswered second-period goals allowed the Rock to blow things wide open.
McArthur netted a power-play marker, his 25th goal of the campaign 4:59 into the frame. That goal would stand up to be the game-winning marker.
“Da Silva put the puck up the (Braedyn) Cyr and he gave it to me,” he said. “I walked down, had a seam pass open but I decided to take a shot and I found the back of the net.”
Da Silva added another power-play marker, his second goal of the game and 21st of the season, to make it a 4-0 hockey game.
Matteo Paradiso followed with his ninth goal of the campaign 53 seconds later.
Even when they were killing penalties, the Rock were dangerous, a point proven when Thomas Beard netted a shorthanded marker, his 13th goal of the season.
Paradiso then added his second goal of the game and 10th of the campaign with less than two minutes remaining in the second period.
And the Rock weren’t done yet.
Edan Etheridge, acquired by the Rock from the GOJHL’s Elmira Sugar Kings on Thursday, scored a power-play marker, his second goal in his second game back with the Rock, with 1:24 remaining in the frame.
The Storm finally showed a little life in the third period, as they netted a pair of power-play markers to close their deficit to 8-2.
Rafek Dianov netted both of those tallies when he scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season.
But McArthur’s second goal of the afternoon and 26th of the campaign, a power-play marker, closed out the scoring in the contest and left the final 9-2 in favour of the Rock.
“We work on a lot of things in practice and it is showing out there on the ice,” he said, providing some insight into what makes his line so effective.
“We have got good chemistry and we just keep rolling.”
McArthur agreed the game’s intensity level ramped up a few notches in the third period.
“We took a couple too many penalties, but we were able to kill a couple of them off,” he said.
Rock coach and general manager Brandon Perry liked what he saw from his squad during the game’s first two periods.
“We didn’t give them anything,” he said. “They couldn’t break out of their zone and we were doing a good job of circling over top of their forwards trying to exit.
“Our D were fantastic tonight, their gaps were tight and we played really good hockey in the first two periods. The third period, I guess, was to be expected when the score is like that. I didn’t like the details on our (penalty) kill too much in the third period, but otherwise it was a real solid effort out of our group.”
The coach was happy to once again see some the Rock’s big offensive guns step up their game Sunday afternoon.
“We have guys up and down our lineup who can play, contribute offensive, contribute defensively,” Perry said. “So, it’s not a surprise. Those guys are as good as anybody and they did a good job of putting the puck in the net tonight.”
There were, of course, plenty of Rock players who stood out in the contest.
“Our give D — Cyr, Matthew Kim, Ben Climenhaga, Jack Quevillon and Ben Hugessen — were fantastic,” Perry said. “They were so good, killing plays before they happened.”
The Rock blue-line was once again missing Zach Secord, who was out with illness. He is listed as day-to-day at this point.
Forward Ashton Beriana, who suffered a lower-body injury in Friday night’s win and did not play Sunday, and forward Maxfeld Shin, who left Sunday afternoon’s contest early after suffering an upper-body injury, are also listed as day-to-day at this point.
The Rock’s biggest injury concern, of course, is starting goalie Frédéric Cousineau who suffered a lower-body injury during the Jan. 4 win over the Gold Miners in Kirkland Lake and is expected to miss four to eight weeks.
Ayden Mullen stopped 15 of the 17 shots he saw to earn his second win of the weekend and 10th of the season.
Michael Tamburro, who started and played the first two periods for the Storm, turning aside 29 of the 37 shots the Rock directed his way, was tagged with the loss.
Lucas Cardiff-Bilodeau blocked nine of the 10 shots fired his way during the third period.
ROCK 8 GOLD MINERS 3
The Rock overcame a sluggish start to dump the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 8-3 at the McIntyre Arena, Friday night.
It was the Rock’s 56th-consecutive win against the Gold Miners.
Early on, it looked like the Gold Miners would finally deliver a victory against the Rock to end a skid that began on Jan. 15, 2019.
A power-play marker off the stick of blue-liner Daniel Rusu, his fifth goal of the season, and an even-strength tally by Nathan Harper, his ninth goal of the campaign, staked the Gold Miners to a 2-0 lead.
But the Rock were able to rally and get back on even terms before the first intermission.
A pair of Paradiso markers, his seventh and eighth of the season, with the second coming on the power play with 11.8 seconds remaining in the frame, tied things up at 2-2.
McArthur’s power-play marker, his 24th goal of the campaign, gave the Rock their first lead of the night 23 seconds into the middle frame.
Harper’s second goal of the game and 10th of the season, a shorthanded marker, tied things up for the Gold Miners four minutes later.
The Rock retook the lead, this time for good, less than two minutes later, as Nolan Masson netted his third goal of the season.
And Da Silva added the first of his three goals on the night and 17th of the campaign just over three minutes later to give the Rock a 5-2 advantage heading into the second intermission.
