NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, March 26, 2017
3rd period rally helps Cochrane force Game 6 vs. Timmins
COCHRANE, Ont. – The Cochrane Crunch rallied after being down 3-0 as well as from a pair of two-goal, third period deficits to pull out a 5-4 come from behind victory over the Timmins Rock Sunday evening in Game 5 of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division semifinal at Tim Horton Event Centre.
With the result, the Crunch trimmed the Rock’s series lead to 3-2 with Game 6 in the best-of-seven going Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at McIntyre Arena in Timmins.
The visitors kicked off the night’s scoring Sunday with 3:07 left in the first period as Jordan Rendle’s point shot eluded Cochrane starter Taylor Unruh just four seconds into a man advantage opportunity.
They then upped the cushion to two less than a minute into the middle stanza as Wayne Mathieu took a back-pass from the end boards and notched his first of the postseason from close range.
A sharp cross-crease pass by Bain Cunningham moments into another power play found a waiting Rendle to the left of Cochrane’s Unruh and he made no mistake, one-timing his club’s third goal of the game midway through the contest.
Cochrane would connect on a man advantage however at 12:59 as Nate Viberg ripped one over the shoulder of Rock netminder Al Rogers from the left face-off circle to make it 3-1.
Braeden Cross, the NOJHL’s leading point producer during the course of the regular season, brought the Crunch back to within one 41 seconds into the third with a backhand attempt that beat Rogers with the club’s skating four on three.
However Timmins came right back with the team’s playing four skaters aside as Mathieu put a perfect pass on the stick of Cunningham, who wired a quick shot to put the visitors back up by two at 1:44.
Cochrane also replaced Unruh with Leighton Williams after that tally the rest of the way.
The Crunch collected another power play tally with 13:17 remaining in regulation as Austin Stauffer walked into a wicked blast from the left face-off dot that flew by Rogers.
Special teams’ success allowed Cochrane to knot the affair a couple minutes later at 4-4 as Nicolas Flanders stuffed in the equalizer from close range.
The Crunch then capped off their comeback with 8:36 to go as Cross collected his second of the stanza with a tap in to finish off the comeback.
Viberg chipped in with two assists for the winners while Tyler Romain had three helpers for the Rock.
Williams made 15 stops in relief to post the victory while Uhruh allowed four against on 16 attempts.
Rogers suffered the loss for Timmins facing 45 shots along the way with Jeff Veitch seeing no stops in a brief third period relief stint.
All NOJHL playoff games are streamed live online at HockeyTV.com.
East Division semifinal (Series D)
No. 2 Cochrane Crunch vs. No. 3 Timmins Rock
Timmins leads best-of-seven series 3-2
Game 1: Cochrane 5 Timmins 3
Game 2: Timmins 4 Cochrane 2
Game 3: Timmins 4 Cochrane 3 (OT)
Game 4: Timmins 4 Cochrane 3
Game 5: Cochrane 5 Timmins 4
Game 6: Tuesday, March 28 @ Timmins 7:30 p.m. (McIntyre Arena)
Game 7*: Wednesday, March 29 @ Cochrane 7:30 p.m. (Tim Horton Event Centre)
*- if necessary
