Tigers open OJHL season with pair of narrow 4-2 home ice losses to Newmarket and Lindsay

September 10, 2026 · 0 Comments

It was a recurrent pattern on the Labor Day Weekend for the Aurora Junior Tigers.

In both their home games versus Newmarket on Friday and Lindsay on Saturday, the Tigers fell behind 3-0 to the Hurricanes and Muskies, respectively.

In both games, the swift-skating Tigers attacked relentlessly and outshot the visitors by a wide margin, especially on Friday night when they held a 16-7 SOG advantage over the Hurricanes.

However, the home side trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes of play when Newmarket forward Nicholas Muzzatti—left all alone in the slot—took a centering pass from Angelo Protopapas and snapped the puck past Aurora goaltender Colby Booth-Housego low glove side with 3:04 left in the period.

In both contests at the ACC, the revamped Aurora squad fought back valiantly to close the deficit, most notably on Friday night in front of a big Opening Night crowd of 542 fans. Trailing 3-0 heading into the final frame, the home side—sporting their yellow and black-and-white-trimmed retro jerseys honoring the 1961-62 Tigers – fired two early goals to pull within one of the visitors.

The Tigers’ power play clicked eighty seconds into the final frame when second-year sniper Javien Nei finally solved Newmarket netminder Alex Armellin who had turned aside 23 shots in the opening 40 minutes. Nei banged home Max Skinner’s rebound to get Aurora on the board and 6’3” Captain Anrijs Bundzenieks earned the second assist by creating space on the play for Skinner and Nei.

Less than eight minutes later, rookie forward Alessandro Cadorin tallied his first OJHL goal when he snapped a wrist shot from the right circle that eluded Armellin. Cadorin, who was set up by veterans Gianfranco Rosella and Thomas Leone, narrowed the Tigers’ deficit to 3-2, much to the delight of the hundreds of fans filling up the ACC.

However, Logan Rivard’s second goal of the game with 4:38 left on the clock took much of the expectant air out of the ACC and stifled the Tigers’ spirited comeback as Newmarket captured the first of four games featured in The Battle of Yonge Street series in 2026-27.

Despite Rivard’s goal late in third period, Tigers Head Coach Ilir Mehmeti was pleased with his club’s spirited rally and bemoaned Aurora’s lack of puck luck in the first 20 minutes of play.

“Newmarket did a good job of withstanding the barrage in the first period and then they capitalized on their chances. Although our puck management cost us in the first two periods, we got exactly what we hoped for with a power play goal to start the third period and I loved our energy to get a big second goal to get us back in it. We had a great first period, too. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize – despite outshooting them 16-7. We lacked finish, but I loved the first period effort—if we could have scored the first goal with a big crowd behind us tonight, it might have been a much different game. Unfortunately, our Opening Night adrenalin settled and we had a flat second period.”

Those second period woes, to which Coach Mehmeti alluded, followed the Tigers into their Saturday night contest versus the Muskies. Lindsay built on their 1-0 first period lead by scoring twice in the first three minutes of the middle frame. Mason Quinn’s power play goal at 1:25 and Declan Ready’s even strength goal at 3:02 gave the visitors a comfortable three-goal margin.

The Tigers started their rally earlier on Saturday when Davis Castle’s power play goal at 17:17 of the second narrowed the home side’s deficit to 3-1. Bundzenieks—with his second assist of the season—and Nick Frasca set up Castle’s man-advantage marker.

However, Ready’s second goal of the game at 1:08 into the final frame restored the Muskies’ three-goal lead.

Skinner—with helpers from Nei and Wyatt Farries—made it 4-2, but the Tigers could not get closer against the #8 seed from last year’s OJHL East Division playoffs.

The Tigers’ season-opening homestand continues on Friday, September 11 when they host the Cobourg Cougars—the newest manifestation of the hard-skating Haliburton Huskies. On Saturday, September 12, the Tigers will host the mighty Milton Menace. Puck drop for both OJHL games will be 7 PM at the ACC.

By Jim Stewart