GALLERY: Timmins maintains dominance of Kirkland Lake

Photos: Allyson Demers

KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division-leading Timmins Rock maintained their dominance of the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners Sunday as they skated away with a 5-1 decision at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.

Needing less than a minute to strike first, the Rock converted early on a delayed penalty with a tally that was credited to Yan Bessette in beating Gold Miners’ starter Braydon Garnhart.

Staying 1-0 for the visitors into the middle session, Timmins added to their lead via the power play when Justin Charette looked to get a piece of a Nyman wrister from the point.

Tacking on another a couple of shifts later, Charette sent a rising shot from the slot that sailed past Garnhart for his second in rapid succession.

Not done there, the Rock made it 4-0 when Nicolas Pigeon spotted defenceman Felix Cadieux-Fredette pinching in from the point and sent a feed across to him that was stuffed in from the top of the crease.

Adding to their cushion in the third, Timmins’ Brady Harroun buried a Pigeon pass from between the hash marks for his 33rd goal of the season, which came while his side was up a skater.

A lengthy power play in the late going helped Kirkland Lake dash the shutout bid of the Rock’s Jacob Brown when Luca Maiuri put a pass into the slot from the behind the net that was quickly swatted in by Jake King with 4:19 remaining.

That would round out the scoring however, with the result seeing the Rock win their 30th consecutive game against the Gold Miners, with a streak that dates back to November of 2018.

As well, the division leaders moved to 34-6-3-2 on the season while Kirkland Lake fell to 5-37-1-0.