The Aurora Tigers lost both games of their back-to-back road trip to open the final month of the OJHL regular season.
The sixth-place Tigers struggled offensively, scoring only once in a pair of losses to potential North-West divisional playoff opponents.
On Friday night in Burlington, the Tigers dropped a 4-1 decision to the third-place Cougars at Central Arena. In Georgetown on Saturday night, the Tigers were shut out 4-0 by the second-place Raiders.
Tigers' Head Coach Greg Johnston assessed his team's efforts: “They were totally different games. We came out very well and provided a high energy game in Burlington against the highest-scoring team in the OJHL. It was a close game—tied 1-1 going into the third-- and they scored their fourth goal into an empty net. I was proud of the effort by the team.”
The hometown Cougars took a 1-0 lead on Crossley Stewart's goal at 16:38 of the first period. The Tigers tied the game when their leading scorer, Lucas Stanojevic, collected his 30th goal of the season. The short-handed goal by the Tigers' captain was assisted by Matthew Godwin. The Tigers and Cougars took at 1-1 tie into the third period.
Coach Johnston acknowledged his Captain's “milestone goal.”
“Lucas has had an excellent season. He brings it every game. He's an excellent leader in the locker room.”
Despite the Tigers' excellent road effort in Burlington, the Cougars took the lead in the final frame on a goal by Jamie Langill.
Crossley Stewart scored his second of the game to extend Burlington's lead to 3-0 and Isaac Faccio fired the puck into an empty net to close the scoring.
On a bright note, the Tigers got stellar goaltending by workhorse Glen Crandall who stopped 45 of the 48 shots that Burlington fired at him.
“Glen played solid,” added Coach Johnston.
The Tigers' offensive woes continued the next night in Georgetown in their 4-0 shutout loss to the Raiders who, like the Burlington Cougars, have clinched a playoff spot.
In Georgetown, the Tigers and the Raiders played a scoreless first period. Coach Johnston expressed concerns about his Tigers not taking the game to Georgetown.
“We needed to initiate. We were only responding most of the game. Georgetown was winning races to the puck and we weren't physical enough.”
Raiders forward Brandon Kakei scored at 1:59 of the second period in what turned out to be the game-winning goal. Isa Parekh and Rhys Chiddenton added two more markers for the Raiders in the middle frame to expand their lead to 3-0.
Noah Cochrane made it 4-0 for Georgetown mid-way through the third to provide the margin of victory.
Coach Johnston says the key to the rematch between Georgetown and Aurora on Tuesday afternoon at the ACC is simple.
“We have to play our brand of hockey.”
The Tigers fell to 2-3-1 in their last six games and are 17-21-2-5 with nine games remaining in their regular season which comes to a close at the end of February for Aurora.
By Jim Stewart
]]>