Timmins collects home ice triumph vs. Espanola -

TIMMINS, Ont. – A couple of Jack Kelly tallies helped lift the Timmins Rock to a 5-2 triumph over the Espanola Paper Kings in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Friday at McIntyre Arena.

Pushing the pace early, Timmins took the lead two and a half minutes into the match-up as Kelly took a pass from Clark Scaddan in the right circle and whipped a wrister upstairs on Espanola netminder James Meredith.

Building on that, the Rock went up by pair midway through the first period when a Kaeden McArthur wrap around attempt came through the crease to Brant Romaniuk, who lifted in a backhand to put the hosts up by a pair.

The Paper Kings countered a couple of shifts later to get on the board off a turnover as Grant Booth went hard to the net and after being denied by goaltender Graham Gee, the puck bounced up, hit off Jack Anderson and flopped into the net.

Moving to the middle frame, Timmins went back up by two when Matthew Kim notched his first NOJHL goal by taking a play at the blueline, then while working his way to the middle, snapped a shot through traffic from up top with half a game remaining.

Still 3-1 Rock into the third period, the visitors got to within one once again when Jason Galante darted down the right wing and fired a shot through the legs of Gee with 11:16 remaining.

Getting that back at 13:45, the Rock won a draw and got it to the net where after a couple of players had stabs at the puck, Kelly jumped in and jammed it in for his team-leading 22nd goal of the season.

From there, Timmins capped off the home ice victory with a late empty netter of the stick of McArthur to close out the evening’s scoring.

Credited with a fifth win in a row, Timmins continued to move up the NOJHL standings.

The Rock are back it Saturday as they pay a visit to the Iroquois Falls Storm, while the Paper Kings’ next contest in Sunday afternoon at the French River Rapids.