Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – The Timmins Rock blasted open a tight game with a four-goal outburst, in an 11-minute span during the second period, as they went on to humble the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 10-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee Sunday at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
This marks the 40th consecutive victory for the Rock over the Gold Miners, which dates back to November of 2018.
Capitalizing on the afternoon’s initial power play, Kirkland Lake took the lead eight minutes in when Cole Ellis took a pass across from recently acquired teammate Jorik Pepin and snapped a shot from the top of the right circle that flew past the blocker of Timmins’ starter Patrick Boivin.
Countering, the visiting Rock answered back with a trio of tallies to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
Harry Clark’s 20th of the campaign tied it with a man advantage effort of his own midway through the session as he buried one from between the hash marks in beating Gold Miners’ netminder Grayden Mole.
Coming right back, Jack Kelly put Timmins in front moments later by knocking the puck in out of mid-air on the rebound of a Brant Romaniuk attempt.
Building on that, the guests made it 3-1 at 13:51 off a turnover, which allowed Nolan Ring to send a cross-ice feed over to Mason Svarich, who promptly whipped in his 24th of the season.
Pulling to within one, Luca Maiuri brough the home side closer near the five-minute mark of the second, as he wired a shot from slot by Boivin.
However, Timmins took over from there to break it open.
Tenzin Nyman began the outburst at 7:18 by finishing off a goal-mouth scramble.
Down a skater, Nolan Ring made it 5-2 as he jammed in a loose puck with Mole out of his crease.
Later efforts came from Liam Wells, in the slot, and Svarich, who went in alone and tucked a backhand through the legs of the goaltender.
Reaching double digits in the third, Romaniuk, Clark, Wells connected to extend the visitors lead.
Gold Miners’ affiliate goalkeeper Roch Pilon came in and played final 15 and a half minutes in relief, allowing just one against.
Kirkland Lake got a third on the day when Jacob Lamoureux pulled a loose puck off the pad of a downed Boivin and slid it in for his ninth goal of the season to conclude the scoring.
With the win, the Rock improve to 23-10-2-0 and with the loss, the Gold Miners fall to 7-24-3-1.
