The Timmins Rock and Cochrane Crunch brought hockey back to Iroquois Falls in a big way this past weekend.

The two teams played in a couple entertaining contests in NOJHL exhibition play. Cochrane took Friday’s contest in overtime 6-5, while Timmins replied with a 4-3 win Sunday night.

Both teams had moving parts in their lineup to see what they have to work with. They both also had to make a couple alterations due to players attending OHL camps this coming week.

Rock Head Coach Corey Beer says he enjoyed the compete level Sunday.

“Our back pressures going to be so key for our defense,” he said, “Obviously, any time you input veteran defensemen like James Watier, Jared Hester in the lineup, Wayne Mathieu up front, it’s going to be a benefit for us.”

Moving ahead, Beer says they’ll continue to focus on the defensive side of their game.

“Body position, (being on) the right side of the puck, where guys are supposed to be on break downs and whatnot, I think that’s an ongoing thing that’ll happen week-to-week throughout the entire year,” he says.

“Specialty teams will be a big one too. We didn’t get a chance to really get into that so far during training camp, so that’ll be a real key point for us this week for us is emphasizing the power play and the penalty kill.”

The Rock host the Hearst Lumberjacks at the McIntyre Arena this Thursday night for their only home exhibition contest. Puck drop is set for 7:00pm.

Meantime, Crunch head coach Ryan Leonard isn’t overall satisfied with the group he has at the moment.

“We got about 10 kids that are guaranteed to be here after training camp, the other ones are still trying out,” he said, “Some guys here that are taking up some import cards, supposed to be important pieces of the puzzle and just not seeing a lot of momentum out of them.”

He says teams only get six import cards, and have to play important roles to stick around.

Leonard adds they played the whole weekend with one line essentially, praising the efforts of Kyle Podwika, Alex Brisson and Josh Roberts.

“Out of nine goals (this weekend, that line)’s got six goals,” he said, “It’ll make a difference (to our overall game) when all the veterans show up here, but some guys need to be worried about if they’re going to be here next week or not.”

He says Wednesday’s game in Hearst will be the final chance for some players to make an impression, adding he wants to go into this upcoming weekend’s “Polar Bear Classic” tournament with a lineup to win it.

Competing in Iroquois Falls was an agreement between the two teams. Attendance figures were promising too, with over 300 people turning up for both games.

GAME NOTES
FRIDAY: Cochrane’s Josh Roberts scored 13 seconds into overtime for the 6-5 win. They also got goals from Austin Whelan, Podwika, Christian Snyder, Austin Caza and Brisson. Timmins replied with tallies from CJ Bradburn, Derek Seguin, Evan Kentish-Stack, Shawn Sloan and Donny Schultz.

Taylor Unruh made 25 saves in the win for the Crunch. Jordan Yaremchuk took the loss, making 38 saves.

SATURDAY: Linden Spencer scored twice for the Rock—including the opening goal and the game-winner—as they beat the Crunch 4-3. Returnees Wayne Mathieu and Grant McClellan scored the other two. Kyle Podwika notched a hat-trick in response for the Crunch.

Eric Jackson got the win for the Rock with 34 saves. Kyle Henderson got the loss in net for Cochrane, a 19 save effort.

———-

MEN’S BASEBALL
The TMBL post-season got underway this past week.

The Servicemaster Orioles earned a 10-6 win over the Moneta Pub & Grub Brewers in Game 1 this past Monday.

Due to cancellations because of weather, their games have been pushed back, with Games 2 and 3 set for tonight and tomorrow at 6:00pm from the Theriault ball diamond.

The other series has already seen an elimination game, but the Lessard-Stephens Red Sox are still alive against the Timmins Whiskey Jacks.

The defending champion Jacks earned a 9-3 win Tuesday and 13-4 win Thursday to take a 2-0 series lead.

The Sox came back Sunday night in a big way, a 9-8 Game 3 win after a walk-off home run by Tim Chalmers.

Game 4 of their series goes Wednesday.

———-

LOCAL SOCCER
The season is officially over for the Timmins Men’s League Soccer and Timmins Women’s Soccer League.

Rehab Plus claimed the women’s crown after sweeping their best-of-3 finals series against the defending champion Dunrite Rubber Wolfpack.

Rehab got consecutive shutouts in the final (2-0 and 3-0) to keep a clean sheet throughout their post-season run.

On the men’s side, the Kapuskasing Longhorns captured their title, beating Timmins United 1-0 off a penalty kick in the final moment of regulation time.

Filed under: Local News, local-sports, timmins-rock