Timmins Rock goalie Patrick Boivin got his left pad in front of this shot off the stick of Greater Sudbury Cubs forward Cameron Shanks during the first period of Sunday afternoon’s NOJHL contest at the McIntyre Arena. Boivin stopped 33 of the 35 shots he faced to backstop the Rock to a 7-2 win over the Cubs — extending their point streak to 11 games in the process. THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS
TIMMINS, Ont. – A four-goal second period barrage helped send the surging Timmins Rock on their way to a 7-2 triumph over the visiting Greater Sudbury Cubs Sunday in a physical Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest in front of 1,000-plus spectators at McIntyre Arena.
Greater Sudbury did get the game’s first goal, after killing off a penalty, then moving into Timmins territory when Ben Lacroix and Oliver Smith combined to find Mason Chitaroni going forward, who then made a deke to his left and stuffed one under the pad of Rock starter Patrick Boivin.
The home side answered with a tying tally off another man advantage, as they used some crisp puck movement to find Mason Svarich on the left side where he ripped a shot into the top corner over the shoulder of Cubs’ netminder Noah Metivier, to extend a point streak to six outings.
Midway through the second period, Timmins began their outburst in the session when Thomas Beard sent Kaeden McArthur in alone on a breakaway where he neatly picked the a corner for his 11th of the season.
Adding another less than a minute later, Svarich notched his second of the afternoon after burying a rebound off a Harry Clark chance, over a downed Metivier.
Continuing to press, the Rock tacked on another a couple of shifts later, with Jaden Lyons connecting after darting in and making a crafty deke before zipping it in.
That also resulted in the Cubs removing Metivier in favour of back-up Noah Beaulne.
Marshall McCharles brought the guests back to within two, via the power play, as he took a cross-crease pass from Smith and whipped it in from the hashmarks.
However, Timmins came right back off the draw to go back up by three after 40 minutes after Beard put the puck through a defender and moved in where he sent a laser into the bottom left corner, a mere nine second later.
Heading to the final frame, the Rock capped off the home-ice victory with power play markers from McArthur, with a one-time blast on a five-on-three, as well as Sam Gallagher’s first NOJHL goal, with a high-rising wrister from the point, to finish off the result.
The victory sees Timmins improve to 10-0-1-0 in their past 11 outings as well as 13-6-2-0 overall.
In defeat, Greater Sudbury fell to 16-5-0-0 on the campaign.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
