TIMMINS, Ont. – The Timmins Rock picked up a hat trick, including the game-winner, and an assist from Derek Seguin to lead them to a 6-3 victory over the Powassan Voodoos Wednesday in Game 4 of their East Division semifinal at McIntyre Arena.
With the result, surprising Timmins now leads this best-of-seven series 3-1 heading into Game 5 Friday at the Powassan Sportsplex at 7 p.m.
Powassan would open the scoring for the first time in the series as they broke out of their own zone then made a couple of crisp passes which eventually found Nicolas Case, who in turn snapped a shot past Timmins starter Tyler Masternak at 17:06.
The Rock had a couple of quality chances to knot the affair in the waning moments of the frame before time expired thanks to some key stops courtesy of Powassan netminder Julian Galloway along with a shot block from a sprawling Voodoos’ defender kept it at 1-0.
After Linden Spencer tied it for Timmins 9:07 into the middle session, the visitors came right back to retake the lead moments later with Tomas Yachmenev finishing off a nice drive to the net by Cade Herd.
The back and forth affair saw Timmins strike shorthanded at 14:56 as Sequin broke in alone from just outside his own blueline and made no mistake as he fired his attempt into the back of the net to tie it at 2-2.
Then after successfully killing off a five-minute major as well as two minutes of a five-on-three, the Rock went back in front in the final moments of the middle stanza when Riley Robitaille flew down the right win and whipped the go ahead tally past Galloway to make it 3-2 after two.
On the man advantage Seguin added another midway through the third to make it 4-2 Rock.
After Eric Mondoux brought Powassan back to within one with six minutes to go, Timmins put the game away with late markers from Robitaille and Seguin, into an empty net, to secure the victory.
Tyler Masternak made 43 saves to record the win while Galloway faced 31 shots in defeat.
NOJHL Playoffs
Series C
East Division semifinal
No. 1 Powassan Voodoos vs. No. 5 Timmins Rock
Timmins leads best-of-seven series 3-1
Game 1: Powassan 5 Timmins 2
Game 2: Timmins 5 Powassan 2
Game 3: Timmins 2 Powassan 1
Game 4: Timmins 6 Powassan 3
Game 5: Friday, March 23 @ Powassan 7 p.m. (Sportsplex)
Game 6*: Sunday, March 25 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre)
Game7*: Tuesday, March 27 @ Powassan 7 p.m. (Sportsplex)
*- if necessary
Photos courtesy of Thomas Perry, The Daily Press (Timmins)