TIMMINS, Ont. – Rolling right along, the Timmins Rock racked up their 10th consecutive Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League victory Tuesday night after crowning the Espanola Paper Kings 6-2 at McIntyre Arena.
Needing just a minute and a half to open the scoring, Nolan Masson slammed in his first as a member of the Rock as he finished off a cross-ice pass from Maxfeld Shin on a two-on-one, in beating Paper Kings’ starter Jack Helkie.
Timmins then added another at 11:42, moments after handling an Espanola man advantage.
On the tally, Brant Romaniuk, who earlier in the day was named to the Canada East roster that will compete in next month’s Junior A World Challenge in Trois-Rivières, Que., sped down the left wing, then after cutting to the middle, fired a feed back across that Matthew Kim pumped in.
Trimming into the deficit in the latter stages of the first period, the NOJHL’s leading goal-getter, Cameron Menard, took a spinning back pass down low from Joseph Coates at the top of the crease and snapped it by Timmins netminder Frédéric Cousineau for his 26th of the campaign.
With the primary assist on the marker, Coates extended a point streak to 10.
The middle frame saw the home side convert seconds into a power play when Matteo Paradiso spun around, then while moving into the right circle, roofed a shot into the top left corner at 5:53.
While up two-men after that, Romaniuk made it 4-1 as he took a dish from Thomas Beard and wired it by Helkie for his 21st goal of the season.
That resulted in a goaltending change for the visitors as Logan Vale entered in relief.
Continuing to press though, Shin went up-ice and muscled his way around a defender, then cut to his left before tucking in his chance from close range.
Another from Menard saw him crank in a one-timer after being set-up by Luc Warner for his 27th tally, 7:47 into the third.
Countering less than a minute later, Kimani Eccleston blasted in his third in two games off a nice feed along the end boards by Masson to round out the scoring.
With the outcome, Timmins continued their winning ways while improving to 16-5-0-1 overall.
In the loss, Espanola dropped to 16-9-0-1.
Both clubs are back at it Friday as the Paper Kings travel to the Soo Thunderbirds while the Rock host the Powassan Voodoos in a pair of 7 p.m. starts.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
