Tigers earn ninth win of the season

February 22, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

Score one for the Tigers.
The rebuild season for the Junior A Aurora Tigers will end on a positive note, after ensuring they did not finish dead last in the Northeast Conference with a win in Orangeville on Monday.
Both teams were simply playing for bragging rights, eliminated from the Ontario Junior Hockey League postseason weeks ago. Each played with a competitive ferocity, however, with Orangeville’s Hudson Lambert first beating Aurora goalie Brayden Lachance just over ten minutes in.
Orangeville went up by two just a few minutes later while shorthanded, before Jacob Kostopoulos’ slap shot from the point made it through a number of bodies to make it a 2 – 1 game.
With Orangeville now up 3 – 1 in the second period, the Tigers notched three quick goals to take the lead. Adam Petric first put a nice tip on a point shot from Sebastian Cirillo, while Luca Esposito was the recipient of a nice chip pass by Mel Melconian to bang it in the open side.
Brandon MacKinnon then scored shorthanded for the Tigers, shooing Orangeville goalie Nathan Torchia from the net.
Although Orangeville tied it at fours before the second intermission, Cirillo and Carmine Alberga scored the only two goals of the third, resulting in a 6 – 4 win for the Tigers: their fourth on the road this season.
The win leaves the Pickering Panthers in the dust with one game to go, tied at nine wins apiece but with more overtime luck going to the Tigers.
Aurora faced the Whitby Fury the previous day in their only other matchup of the week, falling by the wayside 5 – 2. Melconian and MacKinnon found the back of the net, while Esposito had Aurora’s only multipoint night by adding two assists.
With the regular season set to close out this Saturday, the Georgetown Raiders have locked up the first-place race with a record of 44-5-2-1, second best all time to the 2003-04 Tigers, who won the Royal Bank Cup after putting up a showing of 47-2-0-0.
The Trenton Golden Hawks claim the Northeast Conference with a record of 41-8-2-1.
Down Yonge Street, the Newmarket Hurricanes will see the postseason for the second year in a row, squeaking in with an eighth-place finish, and will face Trenton in the first round.
Aurora closes out the season Thursday in Kingston, facing the Kingston Voyageurs, who are locked into sixth position in the conference after losing three of their last four. They have had the Tigers’ number this season offensively, scoring 24 goals against Aurora in the three games of their season series.
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. in Kingston.
For stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com.