NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016
Rapids victorious under new head coach
NOELVILLE, Ont. – The French River Rapids have won their first game under new head coach Dan Tremblay as they defeated the Timmins Rock by scoring a franchise record 10 times in a 10-6 triumph Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Noelville Arena.
The victory comes in Tremblay’s second game as bench boss in French River after taking over the head coaching reigns for the Rapids replacing Moe Mantha, who joined the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit in a similar capacity earlier in the week.
Caleb Rich was an offensive catalyst for French River as he scored four times and set-up two others for a six-point night.
Bret McInall also had a big night for the Rapids with a pair of tallies and three assists.
Timmins opened the scoring 2:48 thanks to Jared Hester, but Brennan Kelly countered with the equalizer 24 seconds later.
Rich then struck shorthanded three minutes later to put French River in front only to see Hester notch his second of the period to knot the affair at 2-2 midway through the session, which resulted in the Rapids replacing starting netminder Zach Mills in favour of Alec St. Georges the rest of the way.
The Rock’s Devon Debastos also left the game at 9:05 with Logan Ferrington coming in to man the nets for his side for the remainder of the contest.
McInall gave the home side the lead once again as he struck with a dozen seconds left in the session.
There was more from French River in the second period as Rich supplied two more markers to put his team up 5-2 with half a game to play.
After Aaron Kerr brought the Rock closer with a power play goal at 18:31, the Rapids came right back moments later on a shorthanded effort provided by McInall.
The goals kept coming in the third starting with Andrew Green’s second for Timmins at 3:06, which was followed by a Chris Atanas effort for French River at 7:54.
Rich then potted his fourth of the evening just past the 12-minute mark to make it 8-4 Rapids.
The two teams then traded two markers apiece to round out the scoring with Kelly and Taylor Karr connecting for French River and Zachary Kercz and Ryan Theriault countering for the Rock.
Seven different Rapids skaters had multiple-point nights in the win.
Theriault, Jorden Rendle and Bain Cunningham had two assists apiece for Timmins.
Shots on goal in the contest favoured the Rock by a 42-35 count with St. Georges registering the win, which was the first home triumph for the first-year club while Ferrington suffered the loss.
