TIMMINS, Ont. – The Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s leading point-getter Nicolas Pigeon tallied twice and had an assist while netminder Jacob Brown posted his sixth shutout of the season as the Timmins Rock rolled past the French River Rapids 8-0 Sunday afternoon at McIntyre Arena.
Timmins picked up some solid work along the side boards from Lucas Lowe to help generate the day’s opening tally, which eventually saw Yan Bessette swat in his 20th tally of the season, over four minutes into the proceedings.
Controlling the pace, the Rock added another half-way through the frame when Nicholas Frederick led a dash up the ice then finished off a crisp three-way passing play with Nolan Ring and Brant Romaniuk by deflecting the puck into the top right-hand corner on French River netminder Matthew Perdue.
It was more from the home team less than a minute later as Evan Grigor wheeled out from behind the goal line and snapped a shot by Perdue for his seventh of the campaign.
Up three into the middle stanza, the Timmins power play went to work and saw Bessette slam in his second of the afternoon as he finished off a Frederick back pass at 4:15.
A surging Nicolas Pigeon then extended a consecutive game point streak to 17 as the Rock captain picked off a clearing attempt, then went in on the left side and sent a sharp wrist shot into the right corner for his 23rd marker of the campaign.
Pigeon then notched another before the second intermission as he moved in a finished off an attempt put towards the target by Justin Charette.
The league’s leading goal-getter then went to work in the final frame as Brady Harroun swatted in his 44th tally by going high on Ben Gustafson who had entered the contest midway through the match-up.
Harroun then put another one upstairs off a faceoff win by Pigeon at 9:15 to notch his 45th and round out the scoring.
The shutout for Brown was his sixth of the season, which ties him for NOJHL lead in that department.
The victory for the front-running Rock raises their NOJHL-best record to 42-7-3-2 while the Rapids fall to 8-42-2-1 in defeat.
Game Photos:
Thomas Perry – The Daily Press/Postmedia Network
