COCHRANE, Ont. – Backed by a hat trick from the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s leading goal scorer, Brady Harroun, the Timmins Rock went on to bounce the Cochrane Crunch 9-1 Saturday at Tim Horton Events Centre.
Timmins needed less than five minutes to send them on their way to the road victory after Harroun was credited with his NOJHL-leading 36th goal of the season.
The Rock added another during a man advantage opportunity that saw Lucas Piekarczyk supply his 18th of the campaign.
Not done there, the visitors went up by three prior to the first intermission compliments of a surging Harroun who banged in his second of the period and 37th overall.
Breaking it open early in the second period, Harroun hammered a one-timer on the power play from the right circle in the first minute to put the guests up by four and put his league-best tally total to 38.
They then came right back off the draw to make it 5-0 on affiliate player Brant Romaniuk’s first NOJHL goal as he roofed Nolan Ring’s cross-ice feed high over the glove of a sprawling Marcus Ouellet in the Cochrane net.
The onslaught continued before the game was half over as Justin Charette steered one in off a feed from behind the goal line from Lucas Lowe.
Cochrane did get one at 10:01 off the stick of Alex Dionne as he tucked in a backhand by the pad of Timmins goalkeeper Jacob Brown.
Coming right back though, Christophe Petit put one in from just inside the blueline for his initial NOJHL marker, which also spelled the end of Ouellet’s evening as he was replaced by Crunch back-up Jake Dubinsky.
Finishing off the rout in the third, Piekarczyk fired one through Dubinsky from the slot at 11:36 before Kyle Trottier capped off the result by moving in from the point and picking the corner off a screen.
The decision was the Rock’s 24th straight regular season triumph over the Crunch as the NOJHL East Division leaders moved to 36-6-3-2 on the season.
With the loss, Cochrane fell to 6-35-1-1 overall.