TIMMINS, Ont. – The Timmins Rock used the strength of a six-goal first period to grab an early lead before eventually outlasting the Soo Eagles 8-6 Friday night in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at McIntyre Arena.
Timmins got going 54 seconds after the opening face-off Aaron Kerr beat Eagles starter Jack Hickey early on.
Sault Ste. Marie came back and got markers from Bradley Hofelich and Evan Kettner to take a 2-1 lead with 14:45 still left in the first.
The Rock then erupted for five tallies in final eight and a half minutes of the session much to the delight of the 635 Timmins faithful on hand.
Zachary Kercz got the offensive barrage going at 11:27 to tie it at 2-2 before Jared Hester put the Rock in front for good 54 seconds later.
Timmins kept coming and added another, a half-minute after that, on a Tristan Salesse effort.
Ryan Therialult made it 5-2 at 16:02 which saw the Eagles replace Hickey in place of Cam Bruggrabe.
The Rock greeted the new Soo goalkeeper with their six of the stanza with Theriault adding another with two seconds remaining.
The Eagles put Hickey back in to start the second and the visitors steadied themselves notching the only two goals in the middle session thanks to Nate Harris, who picked up both of them.
An unassisted effort by Kettner with 14:19 remaining brought the Eagles ever-closer as his 16th of the season made it a 6-5 game.
Bain Cunningham put Timmins back up by two however a couple minutes later, but the visitors continued to battle and made it a one-goal contest once again courtesy of a Gord Helmuth power play effort at 11:33.
Pulling Hickey late in favour of an extra attacker, the Soo pressed to force overtime, but it would be the Rock’s Jordan Rendle icing it with 10 seconds left with an empty netter to wrap things up.
Landen Matechuk and Salesse had two assist each for the winners as did Zack Parrott for the Soo.
Logan Ferrington stopped 33 of 39 in picking up the victory for Timmins.
Hickey faced 41 shots in a losing cause while Bruggrabe saved one of two in his brief relief stint.
