Timmins victorious in Greater Sudbury

Photos: Sudbury Light Event Photography

SUDBURY, Ont. – Gaining an early lead and never trailing was the ideal recipe for the Timmins Rock Thursday evening as they skated to a 4-2 decision over the Greater Sudbury Cubs in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
 
Needing just over two minutes into the contest to get on the board, Timmins struck to gain the upper hand as Tyler Gilberds chipped one past Greater Sudbury starter Joel Rainville off a nice cross-ice feed from Riley Brousseau.

The Rock then went up by a pair a couple of shifts later with Christopher Engelbert collecting his 13th of the campaign as he finished some passing by his teammates by burying a wrist shot from the slot.

Moving the middle session, the hosts got themselves on the board 70 seconds into the frame when Greater Sudbury’s Josh Boucher put a puck into the crease that Timmins’ goalkeeper Gavin McCarthy could not control, which allowed Cole Crowder an opportunity to poke in his fourth in the NOJHL while also extending a point streak to five outings in succession.

Getting that back deep into the period, the Rock clicked once the power play before adding another at even strength to take a three-goal lead into the second intermission.

During a lengthy two-man advantage, Justin Charette converted at 16:43 as he saw Nicolas Pigeon kick the disk up to him with his skate, then take it across from in close before tucking it in on the other side of the net.

Not down there, the guests tacked on another before the break as Pigeon dumped one in that Rainville didn’t gather in, which gave Eric Moreau an open side to shovel in his second of the year.

Moving to the third, the Cubs pulled back to within two on a delayed penalty when Cameron Shanks drove hard to the net and eventually saw Pierson Sobush chip in his 15th, that came at 17:57.

From there though, Timmins ran off the rest of the remaining time on the scoreboard to collect the road triumph.

In getting the win, McCarthy registered his NOJHL-leading 19th victory of the season.

With the result, the Rock improved to 27-7-3-1 overall while the Cubs slipped to 20-13-3-0 in defeat.