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No holiday cheer this time around for Tigers

January 2, 2020   ·   0 Comments

The Aurora Tigers dropped another two games against Collingwood and Georgetown before Christmas.

When you think of a game that is heartbreaking and emotionally deflating, the Tigers endured a feeling like that against the Collingwood Colts last Friday, dramatically losing in double overtime.

In a disastrous first period with True Crowe facing a 10-minute hit to the head misconduct penalty, the Colts got on the board first. A brisk pass from Patrick Brown across the slot was finished by Payton Schaly. Closing in on intermission with three minutes to go, defenceman Ayden Dooley’s slap pass was tipped in by Tyler Ignazzitto sitting on the doorstep.

“I think their size and their strength dominated us. Most teams are older and most teams are bigger and most teams are more experienced,” said Jim Wells Jr in the first intermission.

“I basically said, ‘Guys, guess what? It’s going to be like this every game. Find a way. We’ll learn to battle through it and it’s going to make you a better player.’”

The Tigers began to find a way, outshooting the Colts 15-9 forcing Andrew Rose to make some spectacular saves.

Yet, it was fortune that was not on the Tigers’ side. Noah Minns found Nicholas Cirone available to be the next candidate on the score sheet and the forward did just that. The Colts went up by three heading into the third, but, that didn’t mean the Tigers were ready to roll over.

In fact, Tigers forward Sebastian Tamburro found the back of the net 34 seconds into the period. Noah Minns of the Colts, successfully converted the power play opportunity to make it 4-1, yet the resilience and mental strength from the Tigers did not let this setback affect their play.

On the powerplay the Tigers came back thanks to Tamburro’s second on the night and Luc Reeve scored to make it 4-3, 59 seconds later.

“Once we get one, the floodgates will open and I told them if we get two, they will call a timeout,” said Wells, elaborating on his speech in the second intermission to his team.

After Reeve’s goal, sure enough, Colts coaches Nick Ricca and Darcy Roy called a timeout.

Deeper into the game with 1:20 left and Christian Filippetti on the bench, defenceman Jonathan Balah equalized sending the game to overtime. The comeback was almost complete.

The first four-on-four overtime solved nothing, so, the second three-on-three overtime was left to judge if a winner will exit the arena with a win.

Sure enough, there was a winner.

Payton Schaly skated past the defence with speed and shovelled the puck past Filippetti to seal the victory. How a victory could be so deflating. The Tigers dominated two periods erasing a deficit, and one mishap was all it took.

Although this exceptional performance was moving it was still not the best performance of the year for Wells. The victories against Markham and Brantford are above this one. You might say, this game is in third place as the top three performances this year so far.

The next night in their back to back set, the Tigers travelled to Georgetown to face the Raiders.

Christian Filippetti stood on his head in this one stopping 50 of 53 shots in the 3-1 loss on the road.

Aurora took the lead in the first period thanks to Thomas Kloepfer. The score line did not move on the board for the Tigers. It was all Raiders after that.

Jaden Condotta opened the scoring for the Raiders in the second period and in the third, Graeme McCrory and Kurt Watson put this one to bed.

The Raiders outshot the Tigers 53-30.

The Aurora Tigers club, despite losses, continues to improve. When you believe they are down and out, the boys on that bench and the head coach at the helm insist on teaching you a thing or two about finding ways to keep pushing and honing your craft.

It’s like the Raptors, when the year doesn’t have many expectations and foregone, doubtful conclusions, the team continues to prove critics wrong.

Where will the Aurora Tigers be a year from now?

Let the bets begin.

By Robert Belardi



         

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