VIDEO / GALLERY: Rock retake top spot in NOJHL standings with win over Voodoos

TIMMINS, Ont. – The Timmins Rock got two goals each from Liam Wells and Riley Brousseau to send them on their way to a convincing 7-2 victory over the Powassan Voodoos Sunday afternoon in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at McIntyre Arena.

Getting off to a strong start, Timmins opened the scoring nearly three and a half minutes into the match-up as Wells neatly deflected a Riley Dubois attempt from the right point while parked in front of Powassan starter Alex Bugeja.

Adding another later in the session, Brousseau made it 2-0 Rock at 11:27 when he notched his 10th tally of the season as he jammed one in after a couple of backhand chances in the crease off a Tyler Schwindt shot put on the pads of Bugeja.

Not done there, the home side added another after a Voodoos’ defenceman could not contain a pass back to the point that allowed Tyler Patterson and Eric Barnard to go in on a partial two-man break.

The play resulted in Patterson getting just enough of the puck to put it over to a hard-charging Barnard who calmly redirected the disk into the open side for third goal of the year.

Taking their lead into the middle stanza, the Rock were quick to extend their cushion as Christopher Engelbert converted 70 seconds in as he took a Henry Brock chip pass then proceeded to bury one from the right face-off dot.

Opting to make a goaltending change after that, Voodoos’ back-up Owen Wray entered the game and went the rest of the way for the visitors.

The Timmins power play then went to work midway through the contest as Brousseau finished off a nice passing play by firing a shot from the top of the left circle that clipped off a Powassan defender and changed direction just enough to elude Wray.

Adding to their offensive outburst, the hosts picked up another man advantage effort following some sustained pressure and saw Schwindt send a cross-crease feed over to Nicolas Pigeon who whacked it in from the right side.

In the third, the Voodoos’ Ben White broke Gavin McCarthy’s shutout bid with just over 13 minutes remaining as he took a feed across from Easton Robitaille and whistled one into the top right hand corner to extend a point streak to four games.

However, Wells came right back and notched his second of the day as he cut across from in close and backhanded in a rebound off a Beaupre effort from the slot.

Up a skater in the back half of the final period, Powassan’s Ryan O’Dell hammered one from the point after keeping the play inside the zone then moving to the middle before releasing his blast that went top shelf to cap off the scoring.

McCarthy made 21 stops, including thwarting a second period breakaway, to register his league-leading 15th victory of the season.

Bugeja suffered the loss, allowing four on 12 shots while Wray handled 19 of 22 in nearly 39 minutes of relief.

With the result, the Rock, who already boast the best winning percentage in the league, move back into top spot, points-wise, in the overall NOJHL standings with 42, one more than the Voodoos.

Timmins also improved 20-4-1-1 on the year while Powassan slipped to 18-5-4-1.


Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – 
The Daily Press/Postmedia Network


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