GALLERY: Furious finish sees Timmins hold off Cochrane rally with shootout win

TIMMINS, Ont. – The Timmins Rock managed to withstand a furious finish by the Cochrane Crunch before eventually prevailing 7-6 with a shootout triumph in a thrilling Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter Tuesday evening in front of 714 fans at McIntyre Arena.

First period play saw the Crunch outscore the Rock 2-1 with markers from Nicholas Flanders and Zach Hayes, sandwiched around one by Timmins’ Derek Seguin.

Josh Dickson then tallied twice in the second stanza to give the Rock a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.

The action-packed third period saw Trent Grimshaw knot the affair 8:47 in only to see Timmins strike three times to seemingly put the game away starting with Gage Tremblay 12 seconds after the Grimshaw effort, followed by two courtesy of Riley Brosseau and Riley Robitaille.

Then with Cochrane down by three with under two minutes left in regulation they struck three times in a 70-second span to level the proceedings in dramatic fashion to force overtime.

Justin Bofshever started the outburst at 18:09 followed quickly by markers from Eli Hernandez and Jacob Stos, who collected the equalizer with 41 seconds left.

After a scoreless OT, the Rock regrouped and eventually prevailed in the shootout to take this wild one.

Extra shots ended up going four rounds before the Rock’s Keegan McMullen finished it with the lone goal there to give the home side the additional point on the night.

Ethan Emanuel dished out a career-high four assists for the Crunch.

Timmins held the edge in shots on goal by a 38-29 margin with Tyler Masternak picking up the win while Bradley Dobson suffered the setback with his side salvaging a point in the ever-tight NOJHL east standings.

Game Photos courtesy of  Thomas Perry, The Daily Press (Timmins)