Tough weekend for the Aurora Tigers

October 21, 2021 · 0 Comments

You win some and you lose some, as they say, and after a great start to the season the Tigers had a tough go last week.

The boys dropped two home games, falling to the Pickering Panthers 5-0, last Friday before dropping another game the next night against the Burlington Cougars 5-1.

It was quite the unfortunate game for the Tigers against the Panthers having outshot their opposition 46-18.

Justin Easter in goal stood on his head in this one to give the Panthers every chance at victory.

The Panthers got off to a good start securing a 2-0 lead after the first. Lucas Rowe got things going on the power play and Ben Pickell added a second towards the end of the frame.

Ian Martin scored the only second period goal and got one early in the third. Ethan Lindsay stuck the dagger in the Tigers’ heart, scoring the fifth goal of the evening shorthanded with 1:34 left in the game.

Analogously to the way things went the night before, the Tigers poured on another 40 shots on goal against the Cougars and ultimately fell short.

After going down 2-0 in the first two periods, Josh Belgrave added a third goal just 2:42 into the final frame. Aurora’s Jett McCullum ended the dreadful goal-scoring drought that lasted 120 minutes and eight seconds – dating back to the third period goal from Hollander Thompson against the Markham Royals on October 10.

Analyzing the past two matches, there was, of course, no shortage of effort from the Tigers offensively. The boys have been more than capable since the start of the season to score goals. In this event, it just might have been the case of running into two hot goaltenders.

The Tigers currently have a 3-4 record to begin the year which is considerably better than what they were able to accomplish two seasons ago. Two years ago, the Tigers only recorded seven wins on the year and within seven games, are almost halfway to besting that previous record.

The boys currently hold six points and are one point behind the Collingwood Colts for second in the division and are four points behind the Pickering Panthers for top of the North.

The boys travel to Milton to take on the Menace this Friday before travelling to Stouffville to take on the Spirit on Saturday night.

If you have a hockeytv membership, you can catch all of the OJHL online at hockeytv.com.

By Robert Belardi