Tigers take first three games against Kingston with Game 4 this week

April 2, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Jeff Doner

With their third straight win over the Kingston Voyageurs in the OJHL Northeast Conference finals on Monday night, the Aurora Tigers now find themselves on the verge of a four game series sweep.

After just barely defeating the defensive Cobourg Cougars, the Tigers seem to be more like themselves now, using their speed to take advantage of the opposition.

“I think [Kingston] might be a better match,” said goalie Kevin Entmaa after Game Three on Monday night. “Cobourg was a really good defensive team and they’re a well-coached team that just worked the trap. We had a hard time in the first couple of games to work around that and get our speed going; with Kingston here, if we keep that speed going throughout the whole game, we can catch them on their heels.”

That’s exactly what they have done to the Voyageurs in the series thus far.

In Game One, the Tigers broke out for seven goals against their opponents, with Taylor McCloy leading the way with two goals and an assist.
The Tigers then received some scoring by committee with Kory Kennedy, Curtis Warren, Adam DiBrina, Johnny Curran and Robert Angiolella each adding single tallies.

In fact, a key to the Tigers’ success in the series has been their ability to find secondary scoring outside of their top two lines.

But, after facing a rash of injuries heading into the Kingston series, the Tigers have dug deep and filled holes admirably.

15-year-old Travis Barron has been solid, while Curran has also stepped in and played some big minutes up front.

More importantly, when Entmaa went down with the flu, backup Andy Munroe stepped in and played well to keep the Tigers afloat with a 37-save performance in Game One.

“I felt better than yesterday,” Entmaa said. “I was seeing the puck well and the team was giving me a good chance to stop it. I was just trying to keep going, get all the pucks to the corners and control all the rebounds that I could. The team did what we can do and came out with the win.”

Things evened up in game two, but this time it was Warren who yet again stepped up and scored the winning goal for the Tigers in a 3 – 2 win on Sunday night.

“I think Warren has that confidence in himself right now too,” Entmaa added. “He just comes to the rink and is excited to be here and has realized that he is capable of putting the puck in the net and that’s what he has been doing.”

With the Tigers up two games to none, the series came back to Aurora on Monday night.

Angiolella got the home crowd stirring at the ACC with a power play goal with just 33 seconds left in the first period and the Tigers held on strong from there.

Noah Delmas scored his first goal of the playoffs to make it 2 – 0 and Travis Barron scored his first OJHL playoff goal to help seal a 3 – 1 win for Aurora.

“It’s the hockey that we’ve played all year. We’re playing disciplined, structured and fast. Right now we have the speed going on and everybody is playing well,” said head coach James Richmond.

“We came off a really tough series with Cobourg where they tried to be physical with us and then they got in penalty trouble, but, at the end of the seven-game series, I think they wore down. They were a really good hockey team and I think this team here is a real good skating team, but I think tonight they lost their emotions and that’s what happens.”

That physicality hit a bit of a fever pitch as the game came to a close. Angiolella said playing tough is something the Tigers can handle, but added his team would rather stay out of it.

“It’s not something you want to get into and get distracted with,” he said. “We’ve just got to start getting ready for next game and be prepared because they’re going to come out hard, but as long as we stick to our game plan we should be able to come out with the win.”

The Tigers can eliminate the Voyageurs once and for all and punch their ticket to the finals with a win in Game Four at the ACC on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.