TIMMINS, Ont. – A solid night offensively from the Timmins Rock duo of Kaeden McArthur and Maxx Hamelin propelled their side to a 6-1 triumph over the Soo Thunderbirds Saturday in Game 2 of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League quarter-final affair at McIntyre Arena.
The result evens the best-of-seven set at 1-1 as the series now shifts to John Rhodes Community Centre in Sault Ste. Marie for Game 3, Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The hometown Rock began the night’s scoring midway through the first period off a draw in the Thunderbirds zone, as Maxfeld Shin put a pass to Evan Katic, who quickly wired a rising wrist shot over the glove and shoulder of goaltender Nathan Maguire from the right circle.
Trading tallies early in the second stanza, Hamelin whipped a shot past a defender and through Maguire in the first minute while the sides skated four aside.
The T-Birds then cut into the deficit on the power play at 1:53 as defenceman Issy Parsa pumped one upstairs from the top of the slot high past Rock starter Frédéric Cousineau, off a rush generated by James Legler.
Doubling their lead once more, McArthur clicked on a man advantage as he took a nice back-door feed from Hamelin and whipped it into the open corner.
Moving to the final session, Hamelin once again found McArthur going to the net where he lifted in his third of the series, just 26 seconds in.
A Thomas Beard extra-man effort helped seal the deal for Timmins as he jammed in a loose puck in close.
That tally resulted in a goaltending change as back-up Ryan Hicks entered for the Soo to play the final 14 minutes.
Going to work on the power play yet again, Hamelin made it 6-1 as he knocked in a McArthur feed at 12:59 to complete the evening’s scoring.
No. 4 Timmins Rock vs. No. 5 Soo Thunderbirds
Game 1: Thunderbirds 4, Rock 3 (OT)
Game 2: Rock 6 Thunderbirds 1
Game 3: Tuesday, March 24 @ Soo 7 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)
Game 4: Wednesday, March 25 @ Soo 7 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)
Game 5: Friday, March 27 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 6*: Sunday, March 29 @ Soo 7 p.m. (John Rhodes Community Centre)
Game 7*: Tuesday, March 31 @ Timmins 7 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
*-if necessary
Best-of-seven series tied 1-1
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
