Photos: Hélène Rancourt
BLIND RIVER, Ont. – A Matthew Kim marker three minutes into overtime was the difference as the Timmins Rock skated away with a 5-4 back and forth victory over the Blind River Beavers Sunday afternoon in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Blind River Community Centre.
A fortuitous bounce off the end boards gave Timmins an early lead when a Kim point attempt went well wide, but saw it skip back in front off the end boards then off a Blind River player and got by netminder Connor Dunham-Fox.
Then going to the power play right after that, the Rock made it 2-0 when Brant Romaniuk fired a pass from the right side, to the top of the crease, that was steered in by Diego Da Silva at 2:01.
Some extended man advantage time helped get the home side on the board when Levi Lux neatly redirected a low Gibson Baker shot to the target that flipped over the pad of Frédéric Cousineau in the Timmins net at 12:08.
Building on that, the Beavers came right back and tied it when Ethan McLean muscled a feed from the corner back to the right point that Austin Schultz fired in through traffic to knot the affair at 2-2.
Still level into the middle session, Blind River took the lead eight and a half minutes in, at the tail end of the power play, that saw Lux skate into the Rock zone on the left wing and wire a shot into the bottom right corner for his second of the day.
Heading to the third period, Timmins pulled even while up a skater at 11:06 thanks to Thomas Beard as he redirected in a pass from teammate Lucas Lowe.
Retaking the lead on an extended power play a couple minutes later, Jonah McIndoo slammed in a rebound off a Baker shot.
However, the Rock pulled level once again with a shorthanded effort thanks to Da Silva as he had a couple of in-close cracks generated off a turnover.
Heading to extra time, Kim got the game-winner as he chipped the puck past a defender at his own blue line then darted down the right wing with pace before wiring his chance past Dunham-Fox to end it in the NOJHL’s initial OT affair this season.
The result raises Timmins’ record to 4-2-0-0 while with a point in defeat, Blind River goes to 1-5-0-1.
