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Rock look to build on success

The Timmins Rock will be looking to continue an early season roll that has seen them build a 2-0-0-0 record this weekend when they play a pair of games against NOJHL East Division rivals.

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The Timmins Rock will be looking to continue an early season roll that has seen them build a 2-0-0-0 record this weekend when they play a pair of games against NOJHL East Division rivals.

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Saturday, the Rock will travel to Cochrane for a game against a very familiar foe at the Tim Horton Event Centre, at 7 p.m.

How familiar?

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Well the final 10 games (nine wins, one loss) of their abbreviated 22-game 2020-21 campaign were against the Crunch.

On the other hand, the last time the Rock crossed paths with the Powassan Voodoos, whom they will entertain at the McIntyre Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m., was on Feb. 21, 2020.

That was almost a month before the world was fully in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Crunch have yet to play a game this season, as they are scheduled to begin their 2021-22 campaign on home ice against the Voodoos Friday night.

Both the Rock and the Crunch have made substantial changes to their lineups since they last faced off against each other.

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Only nine Rock regulars — forwards Tyler Schwindt, Nicolas Pigeon, Tyler Gilberds, Henry Brock and Tyler Patterson, as well as blue-liners Bode Dunford, Felix Cadieux-Fredette and Chase Longhurst and goalie Gavin McCarthy — are back from last season.

Riley Brousseau, who sat out the 2020-21 campaign, is no stranger to the Rock-Crunch rivalry, however, as he was a regular in the maroon, gold and white the previous three seasons.

Timmins coach and general manager Brandon Perry, who will get his first taste of the Rock-Crunch rivalry behind the bench Saturday night, admits preparing for a team that has yet to play its first game does present a challenge.

“They do have a couple of exhibition games up on HockeyTV, so we have been watching game film from that which makes it a little bit easier to do pre-scouting,” he said.

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“They are going to be a competitive team. They are going to be fast. They have a couple of good, young skilled players up front.”

Through the first two games of the season, three Rock players — Christopher Engelbert (2, 3-1-4, 0), Cameron Dutkiewicz (2, 1-3-4, 0) and Pigeon (2, 0-4-4, 0) — are tied for the NOJHL scoring lead, with three non-Timmins players.

On the other side of the puck, the Crunch also have nine players — forwards Ryan Hunter (21, 10-12-22, 18), Owen Canini (20, 1-9-10, 8), Benjamin Orgil (21, 5-2-7, 6), Liam Boswell (21, 1-5-6, 8), Matteo Peca (20, 3-3-6, 6) and Alexander Thompson (9, 1-3-4, 4), as well as blue-liners Collin Lapointe (15, 0-2-2, 9) and Brenden Wade (11, 2-1-3, 6) and goalie Michael Nickolau (914:00, 4-10-0-1, 1, 4.79, .893) — back from 2020-21.

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On the surface, Nickolau’s numbers might not look all that impressive, but he was arguably the Crunch’s best player in 2020-21 — at least in their games against the Rock.

“He is a big, athletic kid,” Perry said. “He makes a lot of saves and he was certainly the backbone of their team last season and we expect it to be the same this year.

“It is just going to be a matter of getting a lot of traffic in front of him, getting him moving side to side and try to get some pucks by him.”

Truth be told, Perry and his staff are more focused on ensuring the Rock continue to execute their game plan than any tendencies the Crunch or Voodoos might exhibit.

“That is our strategy for most teams,” he said. “Let’s take care of what we do well and make sure we are clean, fast, push the pace and dictate on how the game is played.

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“We do a quick pre-scout on these teams, just so we are not caught off guard by anything they do, but we focus on what we can control.”

While the Rock have a pair of games on the weekend, the team’s focus is 100 per cent on the game against the Crunch Saturday night.

“We take things one day at a time here,” Perry said. “After that one is behind us we will get ready for Powassan. They historically have a very program.”

The coach isn’t at all concerned his squad might look past the Crunch to their encounter with the Voodoos.

“I don’t think that is an issue in our locker room,” Perry said. “We have incredibly good character in our room and our players are focused on one thing and one thing only and that’s winning hockey games.

“They come to work every day. Even in practice this week, after the weekend they had, they showed up and they put in the work.

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“So, that’s not really a concern at the moment with our veteran leadership. Those guys have been through it and they kind of know. They have been leading the way.”

While the Rock may be sporting a perfect record heading into the weekend, their coach knows there is still room for improvement.

“It is early on in the season and some systems are a little messy,” Perry said. “We just clean it up every day. Every weekend we have games, some week days, as well. We use those as learning tools. We watch the video and clean up our mistakes.

“We are by no means perfect, but we get better every day.”

The Voodoos, of course, have NOJHL veteran coach Marc Lafleur behind the bench this season.

Lafleur, a former assistant coach with the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, spent five years as coach of the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners and three years as bench boss of his hometown Hearst Lumberjacks before serving as an assistant coach with the CCHL’s Carleton Place Canadians last season.

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“He has been around a long time and he has a ton of experience, ton of success,” Perry said. “I can’t imagine this team being any different than his previous teams. They are going to play hard, they are going to be well structured and well coached.

“They are certainly going to be a tough opponent for us.”

Through the first two contests of the season, the Voodoos are averaging five-and-a-half goals per game.

Chase MacQueen-Spence (2, 1-3-4, 0) is one of the non-Timmins players tied with Engelbert, Dutkiewicz and Pigeon for the NOJHL scoring lead.

Three other Voodoos — Alexander Bradshaw (2, 2-1-3, 0), Cameron Lemcke (2, 2-1-3, 0) and James Johnson (2, 0-3-3, 0) — are right behind, with three points each.

In net, Alex Bugeja (96:00, 2-0-0-0, 0, 1.88, .943) has posted the second-best goals against average and saves percentage to this point in the campaign.

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While the Rock are getting set to play their first back-to-back games of the young season, when the Voodoos land at the McIntyre Arena Sunday afternoon they will be getting ready to play their third game in two-and-a-half days.

The Voodoos’ three-game road trip through the northern part of the division begins Friday night in Cochrane and then continues Saturday night in Hearst.

Heading into the weekend, the Rock are relatively healthy, although forward Eric Barnard continues to nurse an upper-body injury.

“He is going to be out for a few more weeks, but everybody else should be available,” Perry said.

The Rock do have a number of extra players who have yet to see action, but Perry does not anticipate making too many changes to the lineup on the weekend.

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Dylan McElhinny
Dylan McElhinny

“We just got a kind from Pittsburgh, Dylan McElhinny, in this week and hopefully his U.S. transfer will go through before Saturday,” Perry said.

“And Daniel Beaupre is a kid we brought in from Vancouver, who has been going through concussion protocol. We are hoping he will get cleared on Friday and will be in the lineup, also.

“It will be nice to have four full lines and not just 11 (forwards) and seven (blue-liners) out there.”

At 6-2 and 190 pounds, 18-year-old McElhinny should bring an element of size to the Rock lineup.

He put up some solid numbers (19, 16-13-29, 18) in 2020-21 with Peters Township High School, of the USHS-PA.

“Dylan is a big, skilled guy,” Perry said.

“He has good hands and he has looked incredible this week.”

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Daniel Beaupre
Daniel Beaupre

Beaupre, also 18, stands 5-9 and weighs 170 pounds. He only got into one game last season, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down his league.

“Daniel produced very well in his last full season (North Shore WC, of the U18 AAA, 47, 28-33-61, –), so we are expecting him to come in here and produce,” Perry said.

“He is a skill guy and you can see his skill on display during practice.”

NOJHL NOTES — The NOJHL has announced the Eastlink TV 3 Stars of the Week, for the seven-day period ending on Sept. 19, are Engelbert, Elliot Lake Red Wings goalie Nolan Chartrand and Soo Thunderbirds forward Tyson Doucette … The Red Wings have traded goalie Julien Lefebvre, a Timmins native who has NOJHL experience with the Rock and Crunch, to the PJHL’s North Kawartha Knights … Alex Bezerra, a former assistant coach and director of hockey operations with the French River Rapids, has been named an assistant coach with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones.

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