Rock triple up on Lumberjacks

It might be pre-season, but the depth for the Timmins Rock is already showing promise.

They got goals from six different sources to defeat the Hearst Lumberjacks 6-2 Thursday night at the McIntyre Arena.

Wayne Mathieu, fresh off being named captain a night before, scored the winner in the second period.

Seth Reuben, Riley Brousseau, Alex Brisson, AJ Campbell and CJ Bradburn scored the other goals for the Rock.

Bradley Golant and Shadow Reuben replied for Hearst.

Rock Head Coach Corey Beer says he’s excited about the depth he has on the roster.

“Our depth is going to be something that we’re going to be using quite a bit this year,” he said, “We’re not certainly a team that’s going to cut it down and use two and a half lines and four defensemen. I think the more we can pound four lines and six ‘D’ at teams, it’d be good for us in the short-term and the long-term.”

He was also complimentary of the team’s defensive game.

“I’d be pretty hard pressed to find a better group of six defensemen that played the game tonight than those guys,” Beer adds, “They were tremendous throughout. The two young lads played together, Will Caston and Shawn Sloan, I thought did a tremendous job.”

Brendan Bishop made 25 saves in his pre-season debut for the Rock. His counterpart Nicholas Dube was pulled mid-way through the third after surrendering six goals on 22 shots.

Artem Bortovskiy made eight saves in relief.

The Rock play in Hearst Sunday night to wrap up their pre-season slate. They open the 2017-18 NOJHL regular season next Friday, September 8th against the French River Rapids.