GALLERY: Rock posts league-best 8th shutout in blanking Crunch

TIMMINS, Ont. – The vaunted Timmins Rock goaltending and solid defensive corps posted their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League-leading eighth shutout of the season Tuesday evening as they blanked the Cochrane Crunch 4-0 at McIntyre Arena with 885 fans on hand.

The victory was the fourth in a row for Timmins, who have only allowed a NOJHL-low 43 goals against, while improving to 21-3-1-1 on the campaign and moved to with two points of league-leading Powassan in the quest for top spot in East Division as well as first overall.

In defeat, Cochrane fell to 11-13-1-2 overall.

First period play saw the home side skate out to a 2-0 lead on an Aidan Milne marker at even strength along with a power play tally off the stick of Josh Dickson as he notched a personal career single-season best 15th goal of the season.

The Rock then tacked on another midway through the middle stanza to go up by three as Karter Renouf collected his 14th of the campaign as he scored for a fourth straight outing.

Timmins netminder Tyler Masternak did the rest, making 16 saves on the night to record his fourth shutout of the year, tying him for the NOJHL lead with teammate Vance Meyer.

One of those stops was thwarting Cochrane’s Nicholas Grandy on a shorthanded breakaway with three and a half minutes remaining in the contest.

The Rock then wrapped up the evening with a late man advantage effort from their captain, Derek Seguin, as he finished off a crisp passing play with 35 seconds to play.

Defenceman Josh Anderson, skating in his 100th NOJHL game, dished out two assists to aid the Timmins cause.

Crunch starter Zach Wickson was busy in net, seeing 40 shots fired his way in suffering the loss.

Photos by Andrew Autio