{"id":12461,"date":"2015-11-04T16:55:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T21:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12461"},"modified":"2015-11-11T17:34:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T22:34:24","slug":"tigers-take-first-in-the-north-with-sixth-straight-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tigers-take-first-in-the-north-with-sixth-straight-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers take first in the North with sixth straight win"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seven games into his reign as head coach of the Junior A Aurora Tigers, Thomas Milne is the talk of the town.<\/p>\n

A mediocre 6-5-0-2 start to the season saw Milne replace the short-tenured Mark Joslin in his position, and the new bench boss has impressed his employers enough to be named the team\u2019s new General Manager.<\/p>\n

Behind the bench for his fourth game, Milne saw the Tigers take down the OJHL\u2019s top team Wednesday, the Trenton Golden Hawks.<\/p>\n

Despite being badly outshot in the third period, Alex Brooks-Potts held on for a 3 \u2013 2 victory to secure the Tigers\u2019 fourth win in a row, stopping 30 of the 32 shots he faced in the match.<\/p>\n

He was back between the pipes Friday at the Aurora Community Centre, taking on the visiting Stouffville Spirit. James Thomson potted his second of the year just a few minutes into the contest, taking advantage of an errant kneeing penalty early on. <\/p>\n

With the score tied at one in the second period, Evan Kearns scored the Tigers\u2019 second powerplay goal of the game to give them a 2 \u2013 1 lead.<\/p>\n

Stouffville tied the game with Keegan Matthew in the box late in the second period, making way for Alex Formenton to earn the game-winning goal for the Tigers midway through the third period.<\/p>\n

Hallowe\u2019en night\u2019s matchup with the Pickering Panthers was a bit spooky, with the Panthers tying the game at two midway through the final frame. But it was the veteran Kyle Locke who scored his first goal in a month with under two minutes to play, earning himself the first star of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a clutch player when we need him,\u201d said Milne of his defenceman. \u201cHe\u2019s a big guy, and he\u2019s not afraid to throw his weight around, but can still make the play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Milne, the Tigers have now gone an impressive 6-0-1, moving into first place in the Ontario Junior Hockey League\u2019s north division. Their 12-5-0-3 record puts them three points up on the second place Markham Royals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling,\u201d said Milne. \u201cThis team has the potential to be the best, and it\u2019s good to see everyone performing at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

A large portion of their return to form can be attributed to their return to the disciplined hockey that earned them the 2014-15 regular season title, a turn in the right direction from the penalty-laden start the Tigers had to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive-on-five, we\u2019re one of the best teams out there,\u201d said Milne. \u201cWe can show how good we are without putting players in the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a triple-header this weekend for the Tigers who host the Kingston Voyageurs on Friday and the Markham Royals on Saturday. They move to Whitby to face the Fury on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

For stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven games into his reign as head coach of the Junior A Aurora Tigers, Thomas Milne is the talk of the town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-11-05-07.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}