To say Timmins Rock head coach Corey Beer was less than thrilled with the performance of his team (11-19-1-2) Tuesday night would be a massive understatement.

“Absolutely terrible effort from our group tonight,” he told media following a 3-1 loss to the Cochrane Crunch (20-10-2-1), one that saw Rock players doing laps around the arena soon afterwards.

It’s not to say he wasn’t pleased with everyone on the team, he did give kudos to the returning Eric Jackson and Derek Seguin.

Jackson was back in net for the first time since sustaining an injury against Powassan on November 26th. He made 33 saves in the loss while Seguin scored the lone Timmins goal.

Other than them, Beer says there “wasn’t many more,” as the Rock stand still in 5th place in the NOJHL East Division with 25 points. Sixth place French River is a point behind while fourth place Hearst is a point ahead.

And with just three games left before the Christmas break, Beer is more worried about “playing good hockey” down the stretch.

“I’d have no problem losing to a good Crunch team if we’re playing good hockey (but they) go out and give that kind of effort in front of good fans, people that pay money to watch you play,” he said, “It’s inexcusable, it’s an inexcusable performance.”

“Our guys can’t read our press clippings from last game (a 4-2 win over French River Thursday night). You go out and play great hockey, we think we can do that every night. It’s a hard league, you have to compete every night, you have to show up, show up on time and get into it.”

The mood was a little more positive on the other side of the arena. Austin Stauffer scored twice—regaining his hold atop the NOJHL’s goal race at 25—and Austin Whelan tipped home the game winner halfway through the 3rd period.

Shayne Battler stopped 20 of 21 shots to snag the victory.

Crunch head coach Ryan Leonard says his team has learned to battle adversity, and it helped them to this win.

He attributes a recent stretch of four straight double overtime games where the players learned to play in tough games.

“I think these tough games that we’ve had down the stretch have really taught us to be better as a team,” he said, “How to handle things and handle a bit of adversity. You don’t see the panic like you did last year in the playoffs.”

Leonard adds another big difference between now and then is the amount of fans in the building.

The recorded attendance was 628, but Leonard says it looked more like 300-400, adding the Rock rode the momentum from the fans and it resulted in the six-game Rock series win last spring.

“It was crazy, they were the third man in this rink every time we played them,” he said, “It’s a little easier playing when there’s not so much noise in the background because (when there’s more fans), this rink’s the loudest rink in the league.”

The win moves them to within 10 points of Powassan for first in the East.

“We’re happy with where we’re at,” said Leonard, adding they have some more work to do with three games left before their Christmas break.

Both teams will have that extra work to put in this weekend. The Rock finish the 2017 portion of the season on the road Thursday in Kirkland Lake, and then a pair of home games Saturday and Sunday against Espanola and Powassan—note Sunday’s game starts at 3:00pm.

Cochrane hosts Powassan Friday night, visits Kirkland Lake Saturday and welcomes Hearst Sunday afternoon.

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