TIMMINS, Ont. – Riding the strength of goaltender Dryden Riley, his efforts backstopped the Timmins Rock to a 4-0 shutout of Soo Eagles Sunday night in the second contest of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League quarter-final match-up at McIntyre Arena.
With the result, Timmins now leads the best-of-seven set 2-0 as the series now shifts to Pullar Stadium in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., for Game 3 Wednesday at 7 p.m., and on FLOHockey.tv
An evenly-played, tight-checking opening 20 minutes went scoreless as the clubs went to their respective dressing rooms for the first intermission, still in search of the evening’s initial tally.
While the Eagles carried the play to commence the second stanza, they could not solve Riley, despite a number of quality attempts.
Then on an extended man advantage, it was Timmins who broke the deadlock deep in the session.
On the tally, Reece Liu fired a crisp feed to the net that was neatly steered in by Lucas Lowe and past Sault Ste. Marie’s Jace Knoerle at 17:21.
Adding another two and a half minutes into the final frame, the Rock’s Alexis Tremblay won a draw back to Sam Gallagher at the point, who snapped an attempt on net that was stopped by Knoerle, but Tremblay swooped in to finish off the rebound with a backhand into the open side.
Adding some insurance while up a skater midway through the third, a Liu pass sent Jack Kelly through the Eagles’ defence, who went in and snapped his chance upstairs, glove-side.
Getting Knoerle out for an extra attacker, the Soo looked to one by Riley, however Kai Clayton iced it for the home side by tucking one in the empty net at 16:59 to round out the scoring.
The shutout for Riley was the second of his postseason career, after collecting his first last year in a triumph against Iroquois Falls.
NOJHL quarter-final
No. 4 Timmins Rock vs. No. 5 Soo Eagles
Rock lead best-of-seven series 2-0
Game 1: Rock 4 Eagles 1
Game 2: Rock 4 Eagles 0
Game 3: Wednesday, Match 26 @ Sault. Ste. Marie 7 p.m. (Pullar Stadium)
Game 4: Thursday, March 27 @ Sault. Ste. Marie 7 p.m. (Pullar Stadium)
Game 5*: Friday, March 28 @ Sault Ste. Marie 7:30 p.m. (Pullar Stadium)
Game 6*: Sunday, March 30 @ Timmins 8 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 7*: Monday, March 31 @ Timmins 7:30 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
*-if necessary
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