Timmins Rock ride on Kirkland Lake Gold Miners

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KIRKLAND LAKE – Defenseman Bode Dunford scored two goals and added an assist to help Timmins Rock take down the Gold Miners 6-2 at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex on Friday night.

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The Peterborough native couldn’t remember the last time he played in a two or three point game.

“It was probably a few years ago, back in Minor Midget or Major Bantam,” he said.

“It’s been a long time.”

Dunford, who now has six points (two goals, four assists) in five games, ended the abridged 2020-21 NOJHL campaign with 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) in 20 games.

“Since the start of the season my confidence has really improved,” he said.

“I see the ice much better and I play games. Everything has gone well so far. “

Friday’s win put The Rock (4-0-1-0) closer to two points behind NOJHL East Division leader Powassan Voodoos (5-0-1-0), who lost a decision 3-2 in overtime against Hearst. Loggers.

Rookie forward Nolan Ring put the Rock on the scoreboard Friday night when he netted the first of his team’s four scorers on the power play just after the middle of the opening period.

It was the first career NOJHL goal for the Timmins native.

The lead didn’t last long, however, as Nicklas Albrecht, who was acquired by Kirkland Lake from the Blind River Beavers in exchange for compatriot Dakota Seamon on Thursday, recovered the Gold Miners just 25 seconds later.

Dunford’s first goal of the night and of the season, also a power-play scorer, gave The Rock the one-goal advantage back a minute and a half later and they took a 2-1 lead in the first. intermission.

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“I received a assist from (Nicolas) Pigeon and just shot five holes,” said Dunford, describing the goal.

“It went straight because Ringer (Ring) threw it.”

Even though the Rock only rose by a single goal after 20 minutes of play, they completely dominated the opener, overtaking the Gold Miners 14-3.

Riley Brousseau scored the Rock’s third power-play goal, his third of the season, less than five minutes into the second period to put the visitors ahead 3-1.

Ryan Evenhuis ‘unassisted tally, his second goal of the season, brought the Gold Miners down to just one at the 12:20 mark from the frame, but Liam Wells’ second goal of the season, also an unassisted scorer. , put the Rock ahead 4-2 seven seconds later.

This is how the score remained when the buzzer sounded to end the second period.

The Rock added two unanswered goals in the third period to seal their victory.

Dunford scored the first of those two makers, again with the Rock on the power play, to bring his game and season goals tally to two.

“My second goal was a nice cross pass, also from Pigeon, and it went to the right side, just below the glove,” he said.

With a pair of goals under his belt, Dunford’s mind naturally turned to a hat-trick.

“When I got back to the bench Cameron Dutkiewicz said, ‘You have to go for the hat,’ he said.

“I decided to go, but I couldn’t quite do it. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t score a goal as well to close the game. “

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Then, with just under three minutes left in the game, Dylan McElhinny scored the first goal of his career in the NOJHL to close the scoring and carry the last 6-2 in favor of the Rock.

Rock assistant coach Marc Bisson was pleased with the effort he saw from his team on Friday night.

“It was a great effort,” he said. “The power play was going. We scored four power play goals.

It was clearly a big improvement over Rock’s power play unit 0-3 performance in Sunday afternoon’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Voodoos.

“We have certainly worked a little in training this week,” said Bisson.

“We looked at a few of the previous games, what had gone wrong against Cochrane and Powassan and made some adjustments.”

Asked which changes have had the most impact on the unit, the assistant coach said they only made things easier.

“It was just a matter of shooting and finding lanes,” Bisson said.

“Bode Dunford had two rockets from the point, with a lot of traffic, people in front of the net making it difficult for the goalie to pick up the pucks.

“When we had chances, we were there and on the rebounds, ready to take a penalty to make a play or score a goal.”

The assistant coach felt the Rock’s quick start helped set the pace for the rest of the competition.

“We’re really ready to play,” Bisson said.

“We really gave them a good push in the first half and while the goals didn’t necessarily come right away, we certainly had an impact from the start.

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“We gave them good results in the first half and we had a lot of good chances that we didn’t bury. “

Bisson sees a lot of similarities in Dunford’s offensive growth in his sophomore year in a Rock uniform and that displayed by former Rock defenseman Eric Moreau in 2020-21.

“It often happens to players after their first year of Junior A hockey,” he said.

“When they come back you just see a huge difference in these players. They know the work they have to do in the summer to be successful.

“Bode is no different. He got to work this summer and he’s one of our leaders. He was absolutely phenomenal tonight.

Bisson was also happy to see Ring and McElhinny score their first goals in the NOJHL on Friday night.

“Ringer had a great power-play outing and it was nice to see him score that first goal,” he said.

“He’s a very talented player and you might not notice the little things he does, but he’s in a great position. On and off the ice, he’s just a model Timmins Rock player.

“He’s not tall, but he’s very important for this team.”

A number of other Rock players also impressed their assistant coach on Friday night.

“Riley Brousseau had a pretty good game for us, as were some of the usual suspects,” Bisson said.

“Pigeon (two assists) and Tyler Schwindt (two assists) were very active and Tyler Patterson added another assist.

“And Gavin McCarthy made some big saves for us in the third period. He was really good to us tonight. He doesn’t get 40 or 50 shots a night so it’s hard sometimes to stay focused and be ready for those breakaways, but he really held up for us tonight.

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McCarthy turned back 23 of 25 shots he faced to register his third win of the season.

Nicolas Alvarez, who was making his first start in the Gold Miners uniform, repelled 42 of the 48 shots the Rock aimed at him and was hit with loss.

NOJHL NOTES – The three stars of the game were Dunford, Brousseau and Alvarez… The Rock went 4-8 on the power play, while the Gold Miners were 0-4 on the power play… Official assist at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex was 185 … another action on Friday saw the Lumberjacks beat the Voodoos 3-2 at Powassan, the Rapids hold the Cochrane Crunch 4-3 at French River and the Beaver knock down the Red Wings 5-2 at Elliot Lake … The Rock will be back in action on Tuesday when they host the Crunch at the McIntyre Arena at 7:30 pm