This page was exported from The Auroran [ http://www.newspapers-online.com/auroran ]
Export date: Thu Mar 28 16:06:37 2024 / +0000 GMT

Tigers stand seven points ahead of ‘Caines after bouts with Lindsay and Wellington




By Jeff Doner

The Aurora Tigers Junior A hockey club came out of another week with five of a possible six points, putting them seven points ahead of Newmarket for first place in the division.

Their week started early on Wednesday night, when the Tigers welcomed the Cobourg Cougars to the ACC.

The Tigers didn't have the start they had hoped for, finding themselves down 2 – 0 less than eight minutes into the game.

But before the first period concluded, captain Robert Angiolella rallied the troops by getting the Tigers on the board with a power play goal with three minutes left. Calvin Higley and Dylan Sikura were credited with the assists.

With less than three minutes left in the second and Adam DiBrina in the penalty box for interference, Cobourg netted a goal in the dying seconds of the power play to put them on 3 – 1.

Not willing to accept a loss, the Tigers forced their way back into the game hoping to at least salvage a point by pushing the game into overtime.
Steady defenceman Kyle Liu scored his second goal in two games on a bullet shot from the point that ricocheted past the Cobourg netminder.

Tigers forward Drake Board then buried a loose puck during a scrum in front of the net, firing up his team and tying the game with eight minutes left.
“I try to get the boys going and get under people's skin and draw some penalties, but I can score sometimes and that's pretty much my role,” Board said postgame.

Both teams pressed to score the game winning goal, but the game was destined for overtime and eventually a shootout where both Aurora shooters were denied.

TJ Melancon and Connor Armour both beat goalie Andy Munroe to secure the win for Cobourg.

“We just tried to win every battle, get the puck deep and put them to the net and see if we can score, but we didn't get the bounces and hit the post in the shootout. You can't really do much about that,” Board said about the loss.

“We had chances on the power play and I think the shots were 46 to 27. We could have had the game there, but it didn't happen.”

Six-foot-two stay-at-home defenceman Mihkel Poldma agreed with his teammate.

“We almost doubled up on them in shots, so we outshot them and outplayed them,” he said. “We had a couple bad bounces, so like our coaches said too, we outplayed them the whole game, but it just didn't go our way.”

On Friday night the Tigers visited the Lindsay Muskies, the very same team that dispatched the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs last season.
The Muskies put up a good fight in a back and forth game that would also need to be decided in overtime.

Lindsay got the early lead in this one, scoring just two minutes into the game. But at 12:55, Tigers forward Taylor McCloy scored his 12th of the season to tie things up. McCloy's 12 goals tie him for the team lead.

Drake Board got one past goalie Branden Francey less than two minutes later for an unassisted goal to give the Tigers a 2 – 1 lead until Lindsay once again tied things up before the end of the period.

The Muskies would regain the lead in the second period, but Angiolella scored his ninth of the season to tie it up midway through the third.
Craving the win, the Tigers were unwilling to lose another point in overtime.

Adam DiBrina would be the hero for the Tigers, burying the winning goal at 2:19. Sikura and Noah Delmas received assists on the winning goal.

Kevin Entmaa got the start in net for this matchup and made 33 saves for the 4 – 3 win, including 16 in the third period alone.

Earlier in the week, Poldma said the Tigers knew what they would be facing in the Muskies.

“They're at the bottom of the standings, but you can't take any team lightly in this league, so you've just got to go in there and play it like any other game,” he said.

Sunday at Wellington

The Tigers fought their way to another 4 – 3 win on the road against the Wellington Dukes on Sunday night.

Jake Gilmour's first period goal tied things up, but Higley's two second period goals and Angiolella's power play marker would prove to be enough to seal the win.

Andy Munroe backstopped the Tigers in the win with 25 saves. It was Munroe's seventh win of the season.

This week the Tigers will visit Stouffville on Thursday night and will return to the ACC on Sunday for a rematch against the Lindsay Muskies at 7.30 p.m.
Excerpt: The Aurora Tigers Junior A hockey club came out of another week with five of a possible six points, putting them seven points ahead of Newmarket for first place in the division.
Post date: 2013-11-20 18:35:04
Post date GMT: 2013-11-20 23:35:04
Post modified date: 2013-11-27 21:15:15
Post modified date GMT: 2013-11-28 02:15:15
Powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin. HTML saving format developed by gVectors Team www.gVectors.com