Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
After forcing a decisive game seven with a 4-1 victory on home ice March 29th, the Soo Thunderbirds traveled north to Timmins, Ontario with their season on the line. Awaiting them at the McIntyre Arena was a determined Timmins Rock squad, with the winner earning a spot in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League semi-finals against the Hearst Lumberjacks.
From the opening puck drop, the Rock took control and never looked back, skating to a 5-2 victory to eliminate the Thunderbirds and advance to the next round.
Timmins opened the scoring midway through the first period. At 8:26, Matthew Kim fired a shot through traffic from the blue line for his first goal of the playoffs, with Kaeden McArthur picking up the assist to make it 1-0. The Rock doubled their lead later in the frame at 15:18, when Lucas Lowe capitalized from the left faceoff circle, finishing a setup from Ben Climenhaga and Kaeden McArthur to give Timmins a 2-0 advantage heading into the intermission.
The Rock continued to build momentum in the second period, striking twice on the powerplay. At 5:21, Kaeden McArthur added to his standout series with his fifth goal of the playoffs, finishing a play from Maxx Hamelin and Thomas Beard to extend the lead to 3-0. Timmins struck again with the man advantage at 18:16, as Braedyn Cyr buried a rebound for his fourth of the playoffs, with assists credited to Evan Katic and Kaeden McArthur, making it 4-0 after forty minutes.
Facing a four-goal deficit in the third period, the Thunderbirds showed pushback late. At 11:50, James Legler scored his first of the playoffs on a 6-on-3 powerplay with the net empty, assisted by Declan Gallivan, cutting the lead to 4-1. Less than a minute later at 12:41, Aiden Atkinson added another with the extra attacker on a 6-on-4 powerplay, scoring his fifth of the playoffs from Drew Christian to make it 4-2.
However, any comeback hopes were short-lived. With the Thunderbirds pressing late, Nolan Masson sealed the victory for Timmins with an unassisted empty-net goal at 19:32, his second of the postseason, securing the 5-2 win.
Thunderbird coach Cole Jarrett told Saultsports that “obviously special teams played a huge part tonight. We weren’t able to capitalize at opportune times and they were. We obviously didn’t quit and made a respectable push at the end. As a coach all you can ask for is your team to battle right to the last second and we did that. We had a great group of kids this year who were a lot of fun to be around.”
“Moving forward I think we have lots of pieces to build on but we will see how the off season plays out,” added Jarrett.
With the victory, the Timmins Rock advance to the NOJHL semi-finals, where they will face the Hearst Lumberjacks in the next round. Dates for the series are expected to be announced in the near future.
For the Soo Thunderbirds, the loss brings their playoff run to an end following a hard-fought seven-game series.
