NEWS

The Aurora Tigers and Wellington Dukes are battling for first place in the North/East Conference of the OJHL. (Photo by Ed McPherson / OJHL Images)

By Ron Valentine

There’s a tie for first overall in the North/East Conference of the Ontario Junior Hockey League between the Aurora Tigers and the Wellington Dukes. Both now have 66 points with the Tigers having 31 wins to the Dukes 29. Aurora leads in winning percentage .717 to .688. The regular season ends Feb. 24.

• In the North, the Pickering Panthers should be able to look forward to post-season play following a week where they won two of three games.

• The Oakville Blades won three at home in as many nights to rejoin the battle atop the South while the North York Rangers took both of their contests and the Toronto Patriots had a win, a loss and a tie.

• in the West, the Georgetown Raiders have now won five in a row and 11 of the their last 12 and the Orangeville Flyers strengthened their hold on the last playoff spot in the S/W Conference.

• Two veterans continued their race for the league point-scoring championship with Jake Bricknell of the Aurora Tigers ending the week with 85 tied with the Toronto Patriots' Andrew Petrucci. Bricknell has eight games remaining while Petrucci has seven. 

 

In the SOUTH/WEST Conference...

 

1. TORONTO PATRIOTS (75 points) - The OJHL's top club started the week off with a 5-5 tie in Kingston. Dante Spagnuolo had three assists and league-leading goal scorer Andrew Petrucci netted No. 42. It was a gritty performance by the club as they were down five times and came back on each occasion. They survived two overtime penalties and were ousthot 9-4 over the 10 minutes. A big divisional clash at the Westwood Saturday night saw Petrucci get another goal and an assist to move him up to 83 points but his team fell 4-3 on a late North York goal. Kyler Matthews put them ahead after just 65 seconds had elapsed in the contest. Jackson Alexeev had the other goal. Super Bowl Sunday night, they were in Mississauga and took command early and ended up 7-2 victors with Spagnuolo scoring two and adding two assists giving him a total of 79 points to date and Colton Kalezic had two goals reaching the 25 mark. Petrucci had a goal and an assist.

 

2. GEORGETOWN RAIDERS (69 points) - Make that five straight wins for the No. 1 team in the West. They topped Whitby 4-1 at home with Andrew Court scoring just 20 seconds into the game. Derek McVey had a shorthanded goal in period two. Justin Paul had the game winner. Troy Timpano was busy making 37 saves. Saturday night they visited the Chargers and they had three goals in the third en route to their 5-1 victory. McVey was on target again with the ex- IceHawk scoring twice. Dustin Hutton, called up from the Vaughan Kings Midgets, had his first OJHL goal in the Raiders' sixteenth road win and Paul had two helpers. Nathan Torchia was in the net for this one, making 27 saves. Seven games left for the Raiders with three of their last four on the road. 

 

3. NORTH YORK RANGERS (72 points) - A big meeting of the southern minds with the Patriots and they came out on top 4-3. Going in, they trailed the league's top squad by five points but gained two back in this one. Nick Leshuk's second of the game with under two minutes was the dramatic decider. Sam Hunter and Kyle Clarke completed their scoring. It was Leshuk's eighth goal and four of those have been game winners. Sunday afternoon, it was Pink in the Rink at The Herb and the Hurricanes were the visitors in another one goal game and once again the Rangers came out with the upper hand building up a 3-0 advantage and then holding off the North Division squad for the 3-2 win. Two Noahs – Robinson and Jordan – along with Pain Court (near Lake St. Clair) native Ross Krieger's 16th did the damage. The teams had two goals each in a span of four minutes and 20 seconds late in the second stanza. Four wins on the trot now with five games left, the next three at home.

 

4. OAKVILLE BLADES (69 points) - Three consecutive nights at home, three wins, twice putting up an 8-spot. Not a bad run for the Blades. Following an idle week, they were back in action against the North's No. 1 team, the Aurora Tigers, and they turned them back 8-5. Peyton Reeves led the charge with the hat trick, Zach Bramwell had a goal and three assists and Matthew Kellenberger three helpers. The first three goals were all on the power play. Friday night it, was  the local derby with the Cougars of Burlington visiting and in a rough-and-tumble affair they emerged 8-2 up. This one was really over after one with the home team up 4-0. Jack Ricketts had two goals and four points. Kellenberger had another big game with a goal and three assists and Andrew McIntyre had two goals, one on the power play and one shorthanded. Quite the start Saturday night as they got two shorthanded versus the Buzzers on the same power play from Spencer Kersten, who had two goals in the game and Teth Burles. A 50-shot performance produced four goals to the visitors one. Bramwell got No. 20 in the third period. Eight straight wins now at Sixteen Mile.

 

5. TORONTO JUNIOR CANADIENS ( 63 points) - The club had just one game this week on Sunday evening as they hosted the Burlington Cougars. They got the win in a closely fought contest by a 4-3 count. Nolan Regan and David Sherman got goals less than a minute apart late in the first pulling the club into a 2-2 tie. With 14 seconds left in the second period Eric Ciccolini made it a 3-3 score and in the third Danil Vertiy notched the game winner just 35 seconds gone. Chad Lopez's two assists gave him 11 points in his last eight games. Despite accumulating 63 points, fourth in the South but seventh in the OJHL overall, it looks like there is a good possibility this club will likely start the post season first series on the road. 

 

6. BUFFALO JUNIOR SABRES (56 points) - The team continued to wobble Monday, losing to Mississauga 5-3. A bright spot was the two goals scored by Adam Tretowicz, giving him 22 for the campaign and Trevor Peca added his 11th. They got back to an even keel in Stouffville winning 7-1. Two more in this game for Tretowicz and three assists for Peca. A busy week saw game No. 3 in Orangeville where they came up on the short end of a 4-2 score in a game that the Flyers' coach Justin Teakle said could have gone either way. Both goals came on the power play from Ryan Sidorski and Anthony Hora. A Sunday afternoon pre-Super Bowl encounter at the HarborCenter had the last-place Milton IceHawks in and Jeremy Forman shut them out 3-0 with Colton McKenna, back from suspension, scoring his fifth in 10 games and that man Tretowicz scoring No. 25. Nick Alfieri had their third goal. NHL Sabres alumni Cody McCormick and Darryl Shannon greeted fans.

 

 

7. ST. MICHAEL'S BUZZERS (46 points) - Not a good week for the Buzzers who dropped both games, 7-2 at home to Pickering and 4-1 in Oakville. Friday Colton Trumbla (No. 22) and Nicholas Zabaneh (No. 13) had the goals and in Oakville it was Cameron Searles potting his 14th and 55th point of the season. Looking pretty safe a couple of weeks ago the club now has dropped three in a row and need to pick it up in the final three weeks of the regular season, they have seven games remaining.

 

8. ORANGEVILLE FLYERS (44 points) -  Head Coach Justin Teakle was pleased with his team's 4-2 win over fellow West Division foes, the Junior Sabres. Despite being without Nathan Gooch (handed a three-game suspension) and injured blueliner Zach Taylor they dug deep for the victory. Vincent Bonaiuto's 16th. was the game winner and Rocco Andreacchi got his 15th. of the season into the vacated Buffalo cage. Other scorers were Masson Sarris, his 15th also, and Evan Stull. Justin and I spoke before the Stouffville contest Sunday afternoon and he mentioned that they would be without Jacob Latham due to a suspension Saturday further depleting their blueline corps. He was worried about the trip to play the Spirit despite that team's struggles of late noting that any team is capable of winning on any day and he would make sure there would be no complacency. The Flyers did pick up the two large points but it was no cakewalk as per the final 2-1 scoreline. Hudson Lambert scored with a laser from the blueline to give him 48 points tied for the league lead in points by a defenseman with the Tigers' Christopher Giroday. Stull's unassisted goal in the middle of the game was the decider. Eric Doner got the win stopping 28.

 

9. MISSISSAUGA CHARGERS (39 points) - Josh Gravelle, signed recently by the Hamilton Bulldogs, had two goals Monday night as they topped the Junior Sabres 5-3 in Port Credit. Brandon Yeamans, Lucas Kells and Orion Hexamer completed the scoring that kept the club in the playoff race. Kyle Lewis and Paul Violo each put up three assists. A trip to Milton Friday night was another plus as they won 3-1. Gravelle had the winner in the third period. Yeamans scored one shorthanded. A tough go Saturday night in Georgetown and Yeamans, shorthanded again, had their only score. Game number four was a tough one at home to the Patriots Sunday and they were bested 7-2. Once more, Yeamans had a goal and call-up Tye McSorley got his first. Not looking good for the club with just five left.

 

10. BURLINGTON COUGARS (37 points) - Friday night was local derby night at Sixteen Mile against the Blades who were coming off an extended rest and things did not go well for the Cougars in a chippy game in which they were down 4-0 after one and fell in the 8-2 final. The two Noah's – Doyle and Kalsner-Lowe – did the scoring. Sunday night a visit to the Scotiabank Pond to tangle with the J.C's they came up with a much better effort but they ended up losing 4-3. Four goals came in a three-minute stretch of the first, the Cougars taking the 2-0 lead courtesy Josiah Degazon and Jaxon Camp. Degazon's shorthanded tally in the second only to see the home team tie it late and win it early in the third. They still have eight games remaining but can they make up the ground?

 

11. MILTON ICEHAWKS (9 points) - The team continued to be more competitive but got no points on Friday night being topped by Mississauga 3-1. It was tied after two on Brett McInall's ninth goal of the season and 18th. point. Sunday afternoon in Buffalo they were shutout 3-0. Five of their remaining seven contests will be away from home and despite the effort being there they may have a hard time improving on their three-win total this season.

 

 

In the NORTH/EAST Conference...

 

1. AURORA TIGERS (66 points) - The Tigers are number one in the N/E Conference after winning two and losing one this week. Affiliate J.D.Falconer, up from the Stayner Siskins Jr. C., had two goals and another call-up , Rory Diniro from the Jr. B Leamington Flyers, also found the net. In a wild one in Oakville Thursday night, they fell 8-5. They got behind in the first but fought back to tie it up in the second before being outscored 4-2 in the final frame. Barrie native Brock Welsh got two in the loss. Sunday afternoon, they rebounded to beat Markham 6-2 with Jake Bricknell leading the way with two goals and an assist – to tie for the points lead with 85 points. Welsh had another and Joseph Mizzi and Christopher Giroday rounded out the offensive production. It was the blueliner's 15th of the season, second in the league to the Golden Hawks' Caleb Boman. Eight games left for the Tigers to hold on to top place. A substantial improvement for the club who last season tallied just two dozen points.

 

2. WELLINGTON DUKES (66 points) -  A win and two losses this week for the Dukes starting with a 4-3 setback to Newmarket. At home in the Dome, they never had the lead in this close contest. Mitchell Mendonca recorded goal No. 16. Same place two nights later and a 6-2 loss to Markham. They briefly had the lead on Teddy McGeen's goal in the middle of the second period but that would last only a half a minute and by the end of the stanza they were 3-2 down. A visit Sunday to Whitby got them back in the groove with McGeen getting a pair, that' s 27 and counting and Daniel Panetta also connected twice. Jonah Capriotti posted shutout No. 5, earned in stopping 23 shots.

 

3. NEWMARKET HURRICANES (60 points) -  Matthew Goeree had the winning goal on the power play as they outlasted the Dukes 4-3. The goal was his third in a Newmarket uniform. Blueliner Robert Cranston got his second of the season to open the scoring, Owen Ramsay picked up his 26th and affiliate Nicholas Soehner had his first in the OJHL. It looked like it would be a scoreless draw over 60 minutes against Cobourg but the Cougars got two in the last minute to hand the Hurricanes the 2-0 home loss. Their three-game week concluded Sunday in an Inter-Conference game against North York and a narrow 3-2 loss with the club scoring twice near the end of the second after being behind 3-0 but it was as close as they would come. Alex Ierullo (No. 21) and Soehner, again, accounted for the goals.

 

4. KINGSTON VOYAGEURS (57 points) -  In the first of two this week, the Vees battled the Toronto Patriots to a 5-5 draw. Robert Clerc's pair gave him 25 for the season. Five times they had the lead in this one and five times the visitors came back. Austin Grzenia got their fifth goal, his 21st on the campaign to date. A single goal victory in Cobourg, 4-3, saw Clerc get the game winner, halfway through the third, the only goal of that period and his sixth game winner on the season. Josh Leblanc had two assists to give him a team-high 57 points this term, one ahead of Clerc. Cameron Pound, the pride of Solihull in the West Midlands, chipped in with two assists. Head Coach Peter Goulet feels his veterans have come through strongly this season – he has nine last year players on his club – and he notes the importance of getting home ice advantage to start the playoffs. Clerc recently obtained a scholarship to Oswego State College to play for the Lakers. Well deserved. From his 1/1A keepers (Trevor Withers and Andrew Farrier) out, his club will be ready, he says. 

 

5. MARKHAM ROYALS (55 points) - Three games this week for the Royals and two wins. They cut off a four-game losing skid in Trenton taking the game 6-5. Bain Cunningham scored the winner with just under three minutes left in the game. Bluleiner Devyn Mayea had his biggest points night of the season with two goals and two assists. Alessio Luciani scored two and also had two helpers and Braedyn Aubin added four assists. Luciani got his two 22 seconds apart and the Mayea pair were 2.41 apart. Another trip out East, this time to Wellington, was even better with the club recording the 6-2 victory. Aubin had four more points including two goals and Cole Brady saved 43 Dukes' shots. Lucas Condotta had a goal and four points. Three unanswered in the final frame broke this one open. The power battle on home ice against Aurora Sunday did not materialize as they fell 5-2 with Jack Jeffers and Cunningham scoring.

 

6. COBOURG COUGARS  (50 points) - Two wins and a narrow loss for the 2017 RBC Cup champs. It started at home Monday as they topped the struggling Lindsay Muskies. The club was a perfect five-for-five with the man-advantage. It was not an easy win in Lindsay but on a strong third period they triumphed 7-3. George Miranda had two power-play goals and a four-point night while Connor MacEachern and blueliner Bryce Martin both chipped in with a goal and three assists. Mac Lowry contributed a goal and three points. Elliot Gerth made 30 stops Thursday evening in Newmarket and Sam Delucia and Jamie Engelbert got goals 22 seconds apart in the last minute of the final frame for a spectacular win. A see-saw battle at home versus the Vees Saturday afternoon saw them on the light end of the 4-3 final. Ryan Porter, Engelbert and MacEachern had the goals. 

 

7. TRENTON GOLDEN HAWKS (48 points) - Only one game this week for the up and down Hawks' and this one fits into the 'down' category although it was close as the 6-5 results bears out. It looked like they would have it all their own way in this one against Markham building up a 4-0 lead just over seven minutes into the second period but with 40 minutes gone the scoreboard read 4-4. The Royals took the lead in the third but Stuart Harley's first as a 'Hawk tied the game only to see the visitors get a late one to take the two points. Matt Nastasiuk, Tiger McDonald, Steven Elliott and Sault Ste. Marie's Gage Stephney, who also added two assists, built the lead. McDonald also contributed two helpers giving him 25 points in as many games since joining the team from the Whitby Fury.

 

8. PICKERING PANTHERS (47 points) - Three games and two wins this week and they now look a good bet to make the post-season. No luck Wednesday night in Aurora going down 5-2. Josh Argier and Brock Traill had their goals. Friday night in St. Michael's they took a big step with a 7-2 win with Toby Cooper (one shorthanded) and Andrew Hughes getting two each. The club only scored one of their seven goals at even-strength with four on the powerplay and the other shorthanded marker coming from Andrew Poulias. Game three looked easy on paper as they were in Stouffville and they did get themselves a 6-0 win with Ethan Langevin saving 29 shots. Traill had two goals, up to 11 as a Panther. Argier notched No. 20. Davis Teigen-Katsumi assisted on four goals. Poulias had a goal and three points, giving him six points in his last two contests. Argier, Hughes and Traill are former Spirit forwards. With the win, they get back to .500 on the season. David DiMarinis, head coach, pointed to the win in St. Michael's in their arena steeped in history as being a large one for his team. Langevin had two strong games, he noted, making the big saves at just the right time. He is also very happy for 'keeper Adam Wisco who just committed to Middlebury in Vermont, a high-academic D3 school. He is an education-oriented guy, he says and deserves the scholarship. Blueliner Dustyn McFaul also recently committed to D1 Clarkson starting in 2019. David says the next three weeks will be important for his team as they battle to get a in a good position and frame of mind for the post season.

 

9. WHITBY FURY (39 points) -  Just one win out of three this week did not help the Fury's post season chances at all. Shane Bull had their only goal in the 4-1 loss to Georgetown. But they did get the win in Lindsay as the topped the Muskies 7-2, led by two goals and an assist from Shane Bull and a goal and two assists from Rory Milne. Luke Pearson made 30 saves. They could not get anything going at home Sunday afternoon with Wellington shutting them out 6-0. Five left for them and running the table will only give them 49 points.

 

10. STOUFFVILLE SPIRIT (18 points) -  Hard times these days for the Spirit  with three more losses this week, all in their own arena. Thursday, they fell 7-1 to Buffalo with Jordan Giacomin scoring. Saturday with only 13 skaters dressed, they lost 6-0 to Pickering and with a fuller complement Sunday they were shaded 2-1 by Orangeville with hometown blueliner Jacob Breckles getting his fourth goal and 21st point of the season. It came on the power play in the second period which saw all three goals in the game scored. A late shot off the post denied the Spirit at least one point.

 

11. LINDSAY MUSKIES (14 points) - Tough times continue for this team who surrendered seven goals in both games this week. In Cobourg, they held a 2-1 advantage in the second but fell 7-3 after a rough third period. Affiliate Tyler Challis had a goal and an assist in his first appearance while Brendan Tomilson and Braydon Leeking had the other goals. At home on Friday night they fell 7-2 to Whitby with Erich Roeder and Leeking scoring. The 12th. on the season for Roeder and the 15th. for Leeking, second on team goal scoring behind Noah Dollo who has 17.