TIMMINS, Ont. – The Soo Eagles got two goals and an assist from Sam Rappaport to help them soar past the Timmins Rock Sunday afternoon in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at McIntyre Arena.
Timmins did open the scoring nearly five minutes in as Nicholas Hautanen notched his first goal of the season for the Rock.
Sault Ste. Marie countered that by striking three times to grab a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Reed Gregory’s eighth, during a man advantage opportunity, tied it at 8:43 while Rappaport put the visitors in front at 18:11.
The Eagles then got another just prior to the opening stanza expiring courtesy of Evan Ketner with a second to go.
Timmins replaced starter Logan Ferrington in favour of affiliate netminder Bradley Dobson to begin the second.
Bain Cunningham brought the home side to within one at 12:12 of the middle frame, but the Eagles added one 40 seconds later from Gord Helmuth to take a 4-2 lead.
Rappaport’s second of the afternoon made it 5-2 three minutes after that, but the Rock’s Jordan Rendle tallied twice late, in a 54-second span, to bring Timmins back to trail by one entering the third.
In the final period however the Eagles Jake Saxton provided some insurance for his team with 6:50 remaining to round out the scoring.
Gregory also helped set-up two for the Soo in the victory.
Zachary Kercz played a pivotal role offensively for Timmins as he earned assists on all four of their tallies in the contest.
Jack Hickey made 32 saves for the Eagles in earning the decision.
Dobson stopped 23 of 26 in relief for the Rock and suffered the loss with Ferrington facing a dozen attempts in one period of work.
