CHELMSFORD – Josh Dickson of the Timmins Rock tied it in the latter stages of regulation, then proceeded to provide the only goal in the shootout in helping rally his side past the Rayside-Balfour Canadians 2-1 in a well-played Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Thursday evening at Chelmsford Arena.
First period play saw the home side notch the lone marker in the opening 20 minutes.
Moments into a Timmins power play, Rayside-Balfour turned the tables as Canadians captain Brady Maltais, skating in his 150th NOJHL game, used the boards to chip the puck past a Rock defender and proceeded to dart in alone on a breakaway down the right wing where he calmly snapped his first goal of the season over the glove of Tyler Masternak to give the hosts the lead at 13:50.
The tightly-contested match-up stayed 1-0 RBC into the first intermission and through a fast-paced middle stanza thanks to the efforts of Rayside-Balfour’s David Bowen and Masternak, in the Rock net.
Moving on to the third frame, Timmins picked up the equalizer with 3:46 remaining off a faceoff win, when Dickson powered his way to the net where he cut right and slid in the tying tally into the open side past Bowen.
Heading to extra attempts, Dickson came in first and calmly went low five-hole to give the guests the edge.
Masternak then shut the door, stopping all three shots he faced to collect his second win of the season.
In regulation, he finished with 17 saves in the victory while Bowen was the busier of the two, handling 39 of 40, plus two of three in the shootout, to help Rayside-Balfour earn a point in defeat.
The two teams are slated to meet again Saturday and Sunday in Timmins in a pair of 8:30 p.m. starts on HockeyTV.com.
