TIMMINS, Ont. – The Timmins Rock rode the strength of four power play goals to send them of their way to a 7-1 win over the Espanola Paper Kings in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game Friday at McIntyre Arena.
Espanola started strong with an Atley Gringorten effort that he buried from the slot after taking a back pass from the end board from teammate from Jonathan Lush at 4:27 that left Rock starter Patrick Boivin little chance on.
Countering a couple of minutes later, Timmins drew level on Evan Grigor’s first NOJHL goal as he quickly steered in a sweet saucer pass feed from Lucas Lowe while moving in on Paper Kings’ netminder Jake Marois.
The Rock’s special teams then went to work in the back half of the first period and converted twice to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
Ethan Pool whipped a Nolan Ring cross-ice feed into the top corner at 11:44 to put the hosts in front, while up a skater, before Lucas Piekarczyk as he quickly buried a close feed from Nicholas Frederick at 15:16.
Moving to the middle stanza, Timmins tacked on a third power play marker to go up by three, with Piekarczyk supplying his second after he slammed in a loose puck that was deemed to have hit the post and come out off a Brady Harroun chance.
On the play, Harroun and Nicolas Pigeon extended point streaks to seven and eight respectively.
It was more from the home side at 17:48 as they came in on a two-on-one and saw Frederick slide a pass over to Kaedyn McArthur, who promptly whipped it upstairs on Marois.
The Rock then added another just prior to the buzzer sounding to complete the session as Grigor bunted in a Lowe blast off the end boards.
In the final frame, Timmins put the game away, while up a skater, as Frederick finished off some crisp puck movement with Pigeon and Piekarczyk and made a quick move to his right before sliding in the evening’s final goal past the outstretched pad of Marois.
The win for Boivin was his 11th of the season, which ties him for the league-lead with Greater Sudbury’s Noah Beaulne.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
