TIMMINS, Ont. – The surging Timmins Rock won their fifth consecutive game Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game and 11th out of their past dozen contests as they defeated the French River Rapids 4-1 Sunday afternoon with 985 fans on hand at McIntyre Arena.
A good start saw veteran forward Stewart Parnell notch a goal in his third consecutive game as his 17th of the year put the home side in front 4:39 in.
They then got the eventual game-winner off the stick of Tyler Gilberds nine and a half minutes later as his 15th overall made it 2-0 Timmins.
French River cut into the deficit on a late power play as Levi Siau finished off the work of teammates Jack Tos and Ryan Smith, with the latter collecting his 20th assist of 2019-20.
After a tight-checking scoreless middle stanza, the Rock got some insurance midway through the third as Parnell set-up Josh Anderson for his 10th tally.
Rock blueliner Phil Caron added a fourth and final marker for his side with just under four minutes left as he tallied in a third straight outing while also extending a point streak to six in rounding out the day’s scoring.
Tyler Masternak finished with 19 saves to record the win in net for the hosts while Ben Montgomery faced 30 attempts in defeat for the Rapids.
Now through 40 games, Timmins now boasts a NOJHL-best 66 points on a 32-6-1-1 overall record while French River slipped to 12-26-4-1 on the campaign with the setback.
Game Photos courtesy of Thomas Perry, The Daily Press (Timmins)