Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – The Timmins Rock rallied from a two-goal deficit and notched six unanswered markers to crown the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 6-2 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Sunday afternoon at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
The hometown Gold Miners started the scoring just over 13 minutes into the match-up off a forced turnover that landed on the stick of Jesse Dupuis, who skated into the right circle and sizzled a shot over the glove of Rock starter Dryden Riley, for his team-leading 10th tally.
Adding another late in the first period, Kirkland Lake took a 2-0 lead into the intermission after Cole Ellis made an impressive dash up ice and darted around a Timmins defender before firing one into the top left corner at 19:06.
In the middle stanza, the Rock got right back into it in the first minute when Lucas Lowe cut through the right circle and wired a shot past the blocker of netminder Caleb Shuker, who was making his initial NOJHL start.
Timmins then drew level at 14:40 when a surging Kaden McArthur scored for a fourth straight game, and fifth in six outings, after collecting the puck in his own end then going coast-to-coast with a great rush that he finished off with a sharp snap shot that beat Shuker.
Knotted at 2-2 into the third, the Rock connected twice on the power play to go in front for good.
The initial marker came on a five-on-three where some pinpoint passing allowed Liam Wells to steer in a Mason Svarich feed, with Harry Clark also chipping in with an assist.
They then saw Svarich and Clark complete a long cross-ice give-and-go, with Svarich snapping a shot into upper portion of the net.
Svarich then sealed the come from behind victory with a shorthanded effort as he slowly moved in and picked the low-side corner.
Completing the rally, Timmins’ Thomas Beard wrapped up the scoring with his team up a skater as he neatly redirected a shot from between the circles, off a chance from the blueline.
The win for the Rock was their sixth in succession as they moved to 9-6-1-0 while in defeat, the Gold Miners dropped to 4-10-2-1.
