Coming into the final weekend of September, things didn’t look promising for the Timmins Rock.

But putting together an unbeaten record over the last couple of games is a positive sign for a team that’s struggled to score consistently over the first month of the NOJHL season.

The Rock started the weekend off with a 4-4 draw in Kirkland Lake Friday night.

Despite leading 4-1 five minutes into the third, the Gold Miners came back to tie things up.

Derek Seguin, Jared Hester, Connor Losen and Seth Reuben all scored for Timmins, with Wayne Mathieu and Alex Brisson each notching a pair of helpers. Eric Jackson made 24 saves.

Moving over to Saturday against French River, it was the Rock that had to climb out of a hole a couple times.

Despite being down 2-0 and 3-2, the Rock found a way to notch a 5-3 win to move to 3-4-0-1 on the season.

Austin Holmes—who was called up from the GNML’s Timmins Majors—nabbed a goal and an assist, as did Alex Brisson. Derek Seguin, Shawn Sloan and Grant McClellan also scored in the win.

Brendan Bishop nabbed his first win of the season, making 20 saves for the home side.

The Rock visit Hearst on Wednesday night.

CRUNCH GET TWO KEY WINS
Also having success over the past week were the Cochrane Crunch.

They grabbed a pair of wins over the top two teams in the NOJHL East Division.

First, it was a 5-2 win over the French River Rapids Thursday, led by a couple quick strikes in the second period. Austin Whelan, Connor Lovie, Caleb Dolman, TJ Delaney and Marcus Blackned all scored.

Shayne Battler made 24 saves for the win in his Crunch debut.

On Saturday, the Crunch came out of Powassan with a 5-2 win over the defending NOJHL Champions.

The Crunch took a 1-0 lead into the third but found themselves down 2-1 just past the six minute mark of the final frame. But four unanswered goals—including a pair of empty netters—put the visitors over the top and now find themselves with a 5-3 record, good for third in the East and just two points back of the first place Voodoos.

TJ Delaney, Thomas Hernandez, Kyle Podwika, Connor Lovie and Austin Stauffer all scored in the win, while Taylor Unruh made 40 saves.

The Crunch are on a West Division swing next weekend, with contests in Elliot Lake Friday, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Saturday against the Eagles and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sunday against the Thunderbirds.

LUMBERJACKS FLEX MUSCLE AT HOME
Not far behind the Crunch are the Hearst Lumberjacks, who continued to showcase their strength at the Claude Larose Arena.

The Jacks only had the one game on the weekend, a 6-3 home win over the French River Rapids.

Samuel Bourdages scored twice. Spencer Silver, Max Johnson and Wade Auger each had a goal and a helper and Colin Boudreau also scored.

Artem Bortovskiy notched his third straight win, making 15 saves. He leads the NOJHL in both goals against average (1.20 GAA) and save percentage (.960SV%).

Hearst is fourth in the East with a 4-2 record and host Timmins on Wednesday night.

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