Late call sends Tigers packing in 2-1 loss to Colts

Access Storage Aurora Tigers captain Luc Reeve was harshly penalized for a high-sticking call late in the third period last Wednesday, a game which saw the Colts knock out the boys 2-1.

The officials, who were simply “letting the boys play” all game long, penalized Reeve for a high-sticking incident which he did not commit.

Despite the penalty, it was a tough bout against a very good Collingwood Colts team.

In what would normally be a seven-game series, the OJHL shortened the inter-divisional rounds to be able to have the national championships this year.

Following the 2-1 loss, Head Coach Greg Johnston said the game was ultimately on them. But despite the loss, he told the boys in the locker room after the game he was very proud.

“I was very proud of them. Keep their heads up. To the players that were leaving, obviously thank you very much. I thanked them all obviously, but thanked the ones that are leaving the 20-year-olds. Wished them luck,” Johnston said, speaking to The Auroran on Friday.

“We'll have a meeting and all that this week. I thought they left all out on the ice. They played hard, but ultimately someone comes up short and it was us today. But I thought, we made some huge strides forward. Get things rolling for next year. But we need a bit of a break right now. They've been going pretty hard.”

Down 1-0 heading into the third period, the Tigers gave it all they had, firing on all cylinders from puck drop. A point shot from William Moore was tipped by Blake Frost to tie all things up.

Less than two minutes later, the Colts regained the advantage.

Spencer Young's shot forced a rebound off of Nolan Boyd. Kevin Henstock was there to tuck it home, giving the Colts the advantage as the opposition rode off to victory.

“To dissect it, there's always something you need to do better. Get the pucks deep, get them turned around. Could we get more traffic in front of the net? (Noah) Pak's a good goalie. You got to get traffic in front of him, make it difficult for him and I think we could have done that better,” Johnston said.

The Tigers gave the Town something to cheer about

 In times of hardship, throughout all of the stresses of COVID, the Aurora Community Centre became a place where fans could go to watch young men strive for their goals of one day making hockey their careers.

Two years ago, this team, prior to all of the COVID shutdowns, had just seven wins under their belt. This season under this revamped coaching staff the boys tallied 25 wins on the year.

This offseason will be filled with a lot of work to find replacements for the players leaving. It will be filled with finding prospects to continue to make this team a winning franchise.

With everything opening up in June to sign and trade players, expect all the offseason activity to begin then.

By Robert Belardi