Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – A Cayden Kowal goal with just 12 seconds remaining in overtime, lifted the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners to a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Timmins Rock in an action-packed Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest Saturday at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
Scoring first, Gold Miners’ defenceman Fynn Manntari broke up a Rock rush in his own zone then chipped a play up-ice that saw Noah Kozmick move ahead with Vaive Hickey and make a nice feed across, in close, that Hickey snapped by goaltender Ayden Mullen.
Timmins came back to tie it with a similar effort at the six-minute mark as Kaedyn McArthur wired in his team-leading 35th tally as he roofed a feed over courtesy of Maxx Hamelin, that left Kirkland Lake goaltender Logan Coates with little chance on.
They then took the lead at 15:41 when Victor Hourtouat slid an Ashton Beriana set-up through the legs of Coates from the top of the crease.
Striking shorthanded in the opening moments of the second period, Kirkland Lake’s Jake Williams chased down a loose puck in the Rock end and after darting out from behind the net, spun and sent a shot under the pad of Mullen for the equalizer.
Tightening up from there, the remainder of the stanza went scoreless to keep it at 2-2 through 40 minutes.
In the third, the Rock clicked quickly thanks to Thomas Beard on the initial shift as he completed a give-and-go with Ryan Armitage.
Picking up the second assist was Matteo Paradiso, who extended a point streak to eight.
Pulling even with five minutes remaining in regulation, the Gold Miners’ Ben Lyons put an attempt to the net from the side boards that ended up hitting off a Timmins defenceman and went into the top left corner over the shoulder of Mullen.
Heading to extra time, Kirkland Lake won it late as Nathan Harper swiped the puck off a Timmins player and went in where he sent a shot high off the glass that bounced right out into the crease where a waiting Kowal knocked in the game-winner.
The victory raises the Miners’ record to 16-26-0-7 and inches them ever closer to securing the eighth and final available postseason berth.
With a point in defeat, the Rock slip to 33-12-0-4.
The two teams meet again Sunday to wrap-up a home-and-home in a 1 p.m. start at McIntyre Arena in Timmins and on FLOHockey.tv.
The outcome also officially eliminates the Iroquois Falls Storm from playoff contention.
