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Junior A Tigers fire four third-period goals in 5-3 comeback win over Lindsay Muskies

November 12, 2026   ·   0 Comments

The Aurora Tigers erased a 3-1 third period deficit with four unanswered goals—two by Max Skinner, the game-winner by Nic Ferrante, and an empty netter by Sheamus Gunn – to earn a thrilling 5-3 win over the Lindsay Muskies at the ACC.

The stirring comeback on Saturday night seemed light years away when Lindsay forward Kaden Koutroulides finished Jack Foley’s centering pass, off an Aurora defensive coverage miscue, to give the Muskies a seemingly-comfortable 3-1 lead at 4:07 of the final frame.

However, the resilient home side turned to a sextet of Tigers to catalyze their dramatic comeback.

Tigers veteran forward Nic Ferrante fired the game-winning goal with 1:35 left on the scoreboard and gave much of the credit to speedy center Giancarlo Rosella.

“I saw Rosella carrying the puck down the left boards. I knew I had to get in position behind the net because no one was going to catch one of the fastest skaters in the league. I sat myself against the end boards, got Rosella’s pass, tried to pass it out front, but it bounced back to me and I was lucky enough to put it in.”

Ferrante also praised the goal-scoring prowess of Tigers’ Max Skinner whose crucial tallies 95 seconds apart pulled Aurora to within one and then tied the game, respectively:  “He’s a guy that has such great finish and he’s going to get his chances in a game.  We can rely on him. As soon as Max got the tying goal, the game turned for us.”

Another player who turned the game for the Tigers on Saturday night was goaltender Colby Booth-Housego. His spectacular stops down the stretch preserved the thrilling come-from-behind win.  Ferrante was impressed by Booth-Housego’s game-saving point-blank glove save with 2:06 left in the contest.

“That’s Colby. He keeps us in it—day in and day out. He never hangs us out to dry. We knew this was going to be a dog fight tonight and there were so many scoring chances. Colby made big saves on their good scoring chances.”

The Tigers capitalized on their final scoring chance when Sheamus Gunn stole the puck off a Lindsay defender, sniped the puck from the top of the right circle into the empty net, and completed the four-goal outburst by the home side.

Although Gunn’s goal was the knockout punch, Ferrante applauded Davis Castle’s dustup with Lindsay’s Tavin MacDonald 2:43 into the final frame as a motivating factor for his hockey club. Castle landed a number of haymakers before his banishment from the game and Ferrante was impressed with his young teammate’s courage.

“As an older guy, I’ve seen my fair share of fights in this league, but when you see the younger guys willing to sacrifice their faces for the team, that got us going.  It created the biggest change of the game.  It was the TSN turning point.”

Before Castle conquered MacDonald in their fierce fracas, the Tigers were trailing 2-1.  After Castle’s spirit-lifting fight, Aurora outscored Lindsay 4-1 in the remaining fifteen minutes to roll to a key victory over a divisional rival.  Ferrante described the importance of the comeback win.

“We’re trying to climb in the standings. We’re also trying to figure out how to play our top game more consistently.  The boys were really going in the third. It was a matter of when we’d break through—not if.  We have to win games like these against teams that are lower in the standings.”

The tenth-place Muskies opened the scoring with 2:51 remaining in the first period when Mason Quinn corralled a rebound in the slot and snapped it home – low blocker side – past Booth-Housego.

Aurora’s power play evened the score when Nick Frasca blasted the puck from the right point into Luka Gelinas’s pads, but the juicy rebound yielded by Lindsay’s netminder was slapped home by Jackson Zinkie at 2:50.

Zinkie’s first OJHL goal elicited a big celly by the Tigers, but the elation was short-lived.

The visitors’ oppressive forechecking and effective completion of checks created a turnover gobbled up by Blake Lalande who slid the puck to Christian Luciano in the slot. Luciano rifled it top right shelf at 5:33 to restore Lindsay’s one-goal lead which they took into the second intermission.

Skinner’s timely tallies at 4:41 and 6:16 of the third period—set up masterfully by Anrijs Bundzenieks and Javian Nei—moved him into first place among OJHL rookie goal scorers with 14.  When Skinner generated Aurora’s only goal in a narrow 3-1 loss to first-place Markham on Sunday afternoon, he moved into a five-way tie for fourth in the league’s goal-scoring race with 15.

The seventh-place Tigers (9-10-0-0) will host the Caledon Admirals (7-13-2-0) on Friday, November 13 and the Toronto Warriors (3-17-1-1) on Saturday, November 14.  Puck drop at the ACC for both games is 7 PM.

“Hockey Ends Hunger” and Junior Tigers collecting food donations on November 20

The Junior A Tigers have entered into a partnership with “Hockey Ends Hunger” and threw the OJHL franchise’s support behind the local agency’s efforts to battle food insecurity in the Aurora-Newmarket area.  Representatives from “Hockey Ends Hunger” and the Tigers will be collecting food items for the Aurora Food Pantry at the North York-Aurora OJHL game on Friday, November 20 at the ACC.

Fans are encouraged to “bring food and support local.  Be a game changer. Together, we can make a difference.”  The “Hockey Ends Hunger 4th Annual Charity Game and Fundraiser” takes place on Saturday, November 28 – also in support of the Aurora Food Pantry.

Please give generously this month to this pair of community initiatives.

By Jim Stewart

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