The Aurora Tigers faced a tough weekend on the ice with abounding games from Friday through Sunday.

Who needs to sleep? Three days of hockey. Bodies being powered by pure adrenaline from start to finish and aching muscles await the Aurora Tigers.

Despite dropping all of their games this week, the Tigers learned lessons at the beginning of 2020 that will last the players, for as long as they play the sport.

On Friday, the Tigers welcomed the Buffalo Jr. Sabres from south of the border.

The last time the Tigers and the Sabres squared off was in Buffalo, NY, when the Sabres defeated the Tigers 7-4 at the HarborCenter.

In the first period in this one, the Tigers began the game on the power play after the Sabres brought the heat.

Good puck movement on the power play resulted in a few good chances to get on the score sheet, if it was not for the heroics of goaltender Chase Clark.

At 8:48 in the first period, a lead pass from Seth Benson found Sabres forward Nolan Gorecki in all alone. The forward made no mistake to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.

The Tigers continued pushing, dumping the puck deep. The only problem was the amount of shots on goal. The team recorded five in each of the first two periods.

The Tigers went on the power play close to the end of the period and a bad mistake in the neutral zone occurred. Captain Alec Cicero corralled the puck and charged in on goal on the breakaway to give the Sabres a 2-0 lead heading into intermission.

At the beginning of the second period, the Sabres scored a third breakaway goal thanks to Nate Berke.

With frustrations looming on the bench, tensions beginning to rise, the Tigers and the Sabres played the rest of the second period, plagued with fighting majors and roughing penalties.

Tigers forward Kaleb Nelson was ejected from the game for fighting Seth Benson who instigated the conflict.

Sabres head coach Nick Tuzzolino got involved in the clamour, clearly aggravated on the bench with a few calls.

At the start of the third period, the Tigers fell into big trouble with two penalties. As a result, on the five on three, Colby Seitz finished his chance in close.

Ethan Louisos in the latter half of the period, added a fifth.

Head Coach Jim Wells Jr. explained his thoughts on Friday night's loss.

“Poor performance, got to take that back on to myself,” said Wells. “Obviously, they were not prepared. We thought we practiced well all week, but obviously they weren't prepared, they were not in the right mental state. No excuses.

“What we're asking of this hockey club after trade deadline is we compete, work as hard as we can and play smart. We didn't do that tonight. We did in spurts.”

In retrospect, this the first time the Tigers had an issue with breakaways according to Wells Jr.

In preparation for the next game the night after at home again, the Tigers hosted the Pickering Panthers.

Despite a good first period shots-wise with 11, the Tigers fell 4-0 down immediately and could not recover.

The boys played an excellent third period scoring three times thanks to Luc Reeve with two goals and Sebastian Tamburro with one.

With a short rest, the Sunday game came on the road in Markham against the Royals.

In the first period, Ryan Rosborough opened the scoring. The Aurora Tigers did not score in the first period for a sixth consecutive game.

The club has scored at least one goal in the first period 17 times in 41 games played thus far this year.

In the second period, Kevin Weaver-Vitale made it 2-0. The resilient group played their game and stuck with the plan. Eventually, Luc Reeve put the Tigers within one.

Four minutes into the third period, Liam Loftus tied the game at 2-2.

Optimistic and working hard, the Tigers ran into a brick wall, coughing up two goals and an eventual empty net goal to fall 5-2 on the road.

This upcoming weekend will hopefully be the weekend the Aurora Tigers welcome back Matt King and Steven Li to the lineup.

Wells expects King and Li to have an instant impact in their return.

“Both those guys will bring a lot of energy. They will also give us depth and a lot of energy. That is something we have been struggling with right now. We've been running a short bench.”

Wells vows to change the compete level from the team each and every night, beginning with how the coaching staff prepares the players.

He is a man of his word.

The Aurora Tigers host the Collingwood Colts this Friday at the Aurora Community Centre. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.

By Robert Belardi