Tigers smoke Royals, tie Colts

March 31, 2022 · 0 Comments

The Aurora Tigers hammered the visiting Markham Royals 5-0 and tied the Collingwood Colts 1-1 last week.

It was as easy of a story to tell against the Royals. Every puck that had been controlled by a Tigers’ player’s stick simply turned to gold.

The Tigers dominated the game outshooting the Royals 44-15 in total. Glen Crandall earned his first shutout of the year in the Jungle.

It took just a little bit of time for the first goal to get on the board.

Justin Biraben popped in his 20th goal of the campaign from Luc Reeve and Connor Van Weelie.

Nick Lamont, who hadn’t found the back of the net in his past 10 games, got on the scoresheet to double the lead.

Moving into the second period, it was fairly clear the Royals were out of it. The Tigers looked to be the team in charge and smashed in another two goals past Nicholas Von Kaufmann.

Ty Roberts and a short-handed goal from Tyson Doucette doubled the lead again. Roberts added the fifth goal in the third period to extend the lead to five.

In what is a traditional week in the OJHL, back-to-back games are the schedule’s bread and butter.

So, the next night, the Tigers hopped on the bus and went north to Collingwood. They travelled to that nice little town right beside Blue Mountain Saturday night, locked in to battle a Colts team that has simply had their number lately. They played in front of a hostile crowd of 685 fans.

Crandall, who earned a back-to-back start, was quite busy for most of this game. With no scoring in the first period, it was the Tigers who silenced the crowd in the second.

Connor Van Weelie got the boys on the board short-handed from Matthew Godwin and Peter Lopes.

In the third period, and with pressure mounting, the Colts found the equalizer in the dying seconds. Dylan Hudon squeaked one by Crandall with seven seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

Double overtime solved nothing, so by OJHL rules this one ended in a draw.

This week is the final week of the OJHL regular season.

The Tigers will travel to Oakville to take on the Blades tomorrow night and will be at home for the last game this Saturday against the Pickering Panthers.

Puck drop at the ACC is at 7.30 p.m.

The OJHL did confirm their playoff schedule for the opening few rounds.

Round one of the divisional semi-finals will be a three-game series taking place between April 10 and 15.

Divisional finals will take part between April 16 and 21 in a three-game series as well.

The Nutrafarms OJHL Championship Series will be a seven-game series between May 2 to 15.

By Robert Belardi