TIMMINS, Ont. – Skating in his first game with the Timmins Rock, Mason Svarich scored three times and dished out an assist to lead his new club to a 6-2 triumph over the Blind River Beavers in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League inter-divisional play Friday with 1,060 fans on hand at McIntyre Arena.
A nice bounce off the boards helped the home side gain the early edge with Liam Wells putting a shot upstairs on Blind River starter Gavin Disano before the contest was two minutes in.
It was more Rock at 4:02, right off a face off to begin a power play that saw the recently acquired Svarich pump a shot from the slot that clipped off a Beavers’ defender and change direction enough to get by Disano and trickle across the goal line to tally in his Timmins debut.
Getting one back before the first intermission, Blind River’s Michael Stec blocked a shot, which allowed teammate Wyatt Gibson to send Clark Furman in alone on a breakaway where he patiently waited for goalkeeper Dryden Riley to go down, then calmly lifted the puck into the top right hand corner.
It was more from Svarich to open the middle frame, as he collected an Elijah Pool attempt from the point, then spun and whipped in a low shot from between the hash marks, 29 seconds into the session.
Another early Svarich strike in the third put the hosts up by three, 49 seconds in, as he buried a rebound off a pad save off a Tenzin Nyman shot from the right side that found its way to him in the slot.
Extending their edge, Timmins tacked on another, while on a five-on-three, as they worked the puck around nicely before Svarich set-up Harry Clark, who buried a shot from a prime shooting area at 7:12.
A Blind River power play helped them get one back as Michael Gallagher banged in a juicy rebound off a Josh Anderson chance, with the latter running a point streak to 10 straight outings in the process.
Capping off a chippy final frame, Jack Anderson finished off a nice rush from Wells, which led to a quick pass from Thomas Beard to wrap-up the victory.
The win moves the Rock record to 5-6-1-0 while with the loss, the Beavers fall to 10-3-0-0.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
