Junior Tigers’ Max Skinner fires five goals to pace dramatic road victories in Newmarket and Toronto

September 24, 2026 · 0 Comments

The Aurora Junior Tigers completed a dramatic road trip sweep on the weekend and left winger Max Skinner led the way.

Skinner scored two goals, including the game winner, on Saturday night as the resurgent Tigers edged the Hurricanes 3-1 in Newmarket.

On Sunday afternoon at the Scotiabank Pond in Downsview, Skinner’s hat trick paced Aurora’s attack and leading scorer Javian Nei added two goals including the OT winner in the Tigers’ narrow 7-6 victory over the Toronto Warriors.

The wins improved the Tigers’ record to 2-5-0-0 and moved the improving squad into 9th place in the OJHL East standings.

On Saturday night at the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex, the Tigers were looking to avenge their season-opening 4-2 home ice loss to the Hurricanes in Round One of the Battle of Yonge Street.

The visitors got the upper hand at 4:44 of the first period when Skinner received a crisp pass from power play partner Sheamus Gunn and rifled a wrist shot from between the circles that beat Hurricanes’ netminder Alex Armellin cleanly.

The chemistry between Skinner, Gunn, and Captain Anrijs Bundzenieks was evident all game as the trio finished checks, forechecked like demons, and finished scoring opportunities.

The big line clicked again at even strength just 1:23 into the second period. Bundzenieks threaded a perfect pass through a maze of players from the right wing on to Skinner’s tape on the door step. The left winger snapped the puck high blocker side past Armellin to put the white-clad visitors up 2-0 and praised the feed provided by the Tigers captain.

“It was a great pass by Anrijs. He has such great vision and great hands to find me back door behind the defense. It was an unreal play by him.”

Skinner described the on-ice chemistry developing between the robust trio: “We trust what the coaching staff is doing with line combinations and we’re definitely creating trust on the ice. I couldn’t have got those two goals tonight without my linemates. Our practices are setting a great tone for the team and we’ve been busy building each other up.”

While Skinner and his linemates were supplying timely offense, Aurora netminder Lucas Carpino was sensational between the pipes—repelling breakaways, point blank shots, and numerous 2-on-1 rushes to bail out his teammates’ defensive miscues.

Skinner praised Carpino’s performance: “He was phenomenal tonight. He’s an amazing goalie and he’s had some big games for us this season. We were glad to score goals for him tonight. We trust him. Every save he made picked up the team and proved what a Grade A goaltender he is.”

Although the Hurricanes slipped one by Carpino when Georgi Garimov redirected Liam McMullin’s right point shot into the lower left corner of the net at 14:22 of the second period, it was the only puck to elude the acrobatic Tigers ‘tender.

Despite some defensive lapses, which compelled Carpino to flash the leather and protect his club’s precarious 2-1 lead early in the final frame, the Tigers delivered the knockout punch at 5:01.

After some ferocious forechecking by the visitors led to a goalmouth scramble in front of the Newmarket net, Skinner created a turnover, Nei feathered a sweet feed to Gunn, and the towering right winger blasted the puck past Armellin to give the Tigers a two-goal cushion.

Down the stretch, Gunn’s maniacal forechecking and dragging of the puck along the boards frustrated the living daylights out of the Hurricane defenders.

The Tigers fended off a protracted 6-on-5 for over ninety seconds after Armellin was lifted for an extra attacker.

Skinner, Gunn, and Bundzenieks were on the ice for most of those game-deciding moments, but Skinner chose to highlight the gritty play of OJHL veteran Nic Ferrante versus the Hurricanes who joined the trio for the final defensive stand.

“Nic showed his hard work all game. He showed it on the power play and on the penalty kill. He drew three penalties at key points of the game. He was getting tripped and boarded, but he just kept working for us. He’s an important leader on the ice and in the room.”

After complimenting his teammates and coaching staff after winning Round Two of the Battle of Yonge Street on Saturday night, Skinner continued his red-hot play on Sunday afternoon. His hat-trick helped propel the Tigers to a wild OT win over the Warriors in Downsview and establish Aurora’s first winning streak of the season.

The speedy, hard-hitting left winger opened the scoring at 6:27 of the first period, gave the Tigers a 4-2 lead 2:47 into the second frame, and put Aurora ahead 5-3 three minutes into the final frame. It was, indeed, a shootout at Scotiabank and the Tigers turned in their best offensive performance of the young OJHL season.

After Danil Kolzin staked Aurora to a commanding 6-3 lead at 11:25 of the third period, the Warriors replied with goals by Zachary Anderson, former Tiger Marcus Carter, and Henry Wang to deadlock the contest and sent it to overtime.

Nei played OT hero 54 seconds into the extra period when he beat Warriors goaltender Cameron Hallett with his second goal of the contest. Skinner and Nick Frasca earned assists on Nei’s GWG as the resurgent Junior Tigers completed a weekend sweep of Newmarket and Toronto.

Gunn continued his hot hand, too, versus Toronto—earning three assists after a productive night in Newmarket.

The Junior Tigers put their two-game winning streak on the line when they host the Stouffville Spirit on Friday, October 2. Puck drop at the ACC will be 7 p.m.

By Jim Stewart