SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – Riding a four-goal night from Kaeden McArthur, the Timmins Rock continued their winning ways with a 13th straight triumph in defeating the Soo Thunderbirds 6-3 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Saturday at John Rhodes Community Centre.
The surging Rock maintained their torrid pace early on as they took the lead just 41 seconds into the matchup when a head man pass sent them in on a two-on-one where Maxfeld Shin fed a feed across to McArthur, who took it right and lifted in a rising backhand by Thunderbirds’ starter Ryan Hicks.
Tacking on one more 14 minutes later, Thomas Beard dished off a pass to a streaking Ryan Armitage who snapped a shot that Hicks could only get a piece of before it trickled into the net.
Building on that, the visitors took a 3-0 cushion into the first intermission as recently acquired defenceman Ben Hugesson was spotted by Kimani Eccleston coming in the back door with a cross-ice pass that he pumped for his initial NOJHL tally at 18:13.
Moving to the middle frame, Timmins kept coming and went up by four thanks to McArthur once again as he popped in another backhand from the top of the crease.
Sault Ste. Marie responded right off the draw when Vincent Bondy bagged his first league goal with a nice move while pinching in from the point as he side-stepped a Rock skater and put a shot off the post and in past netminder Frédéric Cousineau.
Building on that, the T-Birds clicked again a couple of shifts later with Aiden Atkinson taking a pass from James Legler and wiring another off iron, then dropping in.
The Soo then struck shorthanded deep in the session as Legler picked off an errant Timmins pass at his own blueline and darted in alone on a breakaway that he promptly buried.
Heading to the third period, McArthur sealed the result as he capped off his night with a pair of empty netters in the latter stages of the proceedings to round out the scoring.
The result moves the red-hot Rock to 19-5-0-1 while in defeat the Thunderbirds fell to 18-9-1-1.
