Photos: Northern Lights Photography
HEARST, Ont. – The Timmins Rock rallied from a two-goal, third period deficit before eventually going on to edge the Hearst Lumberjacks 3-2 in a shootout Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter at Claude Larose Recreation Centre.
After taking the opener of the weekend home-and-home Friday in Timmins, Hearst kept it going by converting two minutes into this one when Liam Boswell whipped a shot upstairs past a screened Rock netminder Dryden Riley from the top of the left circle.
Still 1-0 Lumberjacks into the second period, the home side added another early marker with Jason Towindo finishing one off from the right side after Hearst buzzed around in Timmins territory.
The Rock had a great chance to get one back before the second intermission when Harry Clark went in alone on a clear-cut breakaway, only to be denied by the pad of goalkeeper Tristan Boileau.
On an early power play in the third, the reigning NOJHL champions got on the board just over a minute in when Nolan Ring picked up a point for a fourth straight outing as he beat Boileau by whipping in a rebound from a sharp angle off to the left of the net.
Drawing even with 2:34 to go in regulation, Timmins controlled a draw while on a man advantage and saw Liam Wells redirect a Felix Cadieux-Fredette point blast to give him goals in four consecutive contests as well as points in each of the Rock’s six games so far this season.
Heading to extra time, a big Riley stop kept it level after 65 minutes.
In the shootout Kaeden McArthur of Timmins and Hearst’s Tyler Patterson both provided nifty tallies to keep it even through three shooters apiece.
After Brant Romaniuk fired a snap shot by Boileau to give the guests the edge, Riley outwaited one final Lumberjacks’ chance to collect his first NOJHL victory.
The triumph also saw the Rock move to 3-2-1-0 overall while Hearst slipped to 3-2-0-1.
