COCHRANE, Ont. – The Cochrane Crunch erupted for five first period tallies and never looked back as they blasted the Timmins Rock 12-2 Saturday night in a penalty-filled Game 2 of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division semifinal at the Tim Horton Event Centre.
Cochrane now leads the best-of-seven series heading into Game 3 Tuesday at 7 p.m. at McIntyre Arena in Timmins.
In Saturday’s contest, the Crunch went up 3-0 before the game was three minutes old on goals by Dustin Cordeiro, John Stevenson and Hunter Atchison, which spelled an early end to Rock starter Logan Ferrington’s night.
Matthew Nixon came to replace Ferrington, but he was promptly greeted by two additional markers by Stevenson and Atchison as the home side to a 5-0 cushion into the middle session.
Timmins got one back two and a half minutes into the second on a Nicholas Hautanen power play effort.
The Crunch countered with three consecutive man advantage markers, including two by Joey Mavrin and one by Stevenson as he finished off a hat trick.
After Rock affiliate Jace Soroko got one back at 13:24, Brandon Workun added another for Cochrane as they took a 9-2 lead after 40 minutes.
The Crunch then finished off the one-sided affair in the third getting an extra-man effort courtesy of Tyler Minoletti and two more tallies from Cordeiro to round things out offensively.
Mavrin had also four assists to give him six points on the night.
Jeremy McNeil chipped in with four helpers of his own while Aviv Milner had three.
Landen Matechuk drew assists on both Timmins goals.
Brett Young made 34 stops to record the win for Cochrane.
Ferrington suffered the loss stopping four of seven while Nixon had 34 saves in a lengthy relief stint for the Rock.
East Division semifinal
No. 1 Cochrane Crunch vs. No. 4 Timmins Rock
Cochrane leads best-of-seven series 2-0
Game 1: Cochrane 4 Timmins 1
Game 2: Cochrane 12 Timmins 2
Game 3: Tuesday, March 22 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre)
Game 4: Thursday, March 24 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre)
Game 5*: Saturday, March 26 @ Cochrane 7:30 p.m. (Tim Horton)
Game 6*: Tuesday, March 29 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre)
Game 7*: Wednesday, March 30 @ Cochrane 7:30 p.m. (Tim Horton)
*- if necessary
