{"id":12865,"date":"2015-12-16T14:11:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T19:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12865"},"modified":"2016-01-13T14:48:49","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T19:48:49","slug":"falconers-ot-winner-lifts-holiday-spirits-of-slumping-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/falconers-ot-winner-lifts-holiday-spirits-of-slumping-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"Falconer\u2019s OT winner lifts holiday spirits of slumping Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

If anything, at least the Aurora Tigers can head into their three-week holiday break on a high note.<\/p>\n

The Junior A squad was able to squeak out the tiniest margin of victory in Saturday\u2019s home game against the lowly Whitby Fury, who sit in the basement of the OJHL\u2019s East Division. <\/p>\n

With captain Daniel Mantenuto and assistant captain Drake Board back from their stints at Team Canada East selection camp for the World Junior A Challenge, it was Mantenuto that opened the scoring for his home club late in the first period. Whitby\u2019s Justin Brand tied it up in the second.<\/p>\n

Newcomer JD Falconer, his jersey barely used but no rookie to the Aurora Community Centre, was the overtime hero in the second extra frame. His first goal as a Tiger, snapped from the top of the left circle, ended a four-game losing skid for the Tigers.<\/p>\n

It was only the Tigers second overtime goal in eight attempts this season.<\/p>\n

Falconer, a 5\u20199\u201d, 18-year-old Barrie native, spent the past two seasons as a point-per-game player with St. Andrew\u2019s College in Aurora before joining the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL this year.<\/p>\n

He had one goal in 23 games with the Grizzlies before being purchased by the Tigers last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be back in Aurora,\u201d said Falconer. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a great organization here, and I\u2019m excited to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Falconer\u2019s overtime winner, the Tigers had lost seven of their last nine games, by far their biggest slump of the season. Since a six-game winning streak in October, they have not looked like the Aurora Tigers that won the OJHL regular season last year.<\/p>\n

They scored just two goals during their four-game losing skid, after being shut out by the league-leading Trenton Golden Hawks on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

And it all shows on the stats sheet: despite Saturday\u2019s win over Whitby being only the second win in eight games with the Tigers for goaltender Alex Fotinos, his 23-save performance solidified his position as one of the OJHL\u2019s top netminders, sitting second in the league with a 1.90 goals-against-average.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be better in front of him,\u201d said Mantenuto. \u201cHe can play a solid game every night, but if we\u2019re not helping him on the other end it doesn\u2019t make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going the other way in league standings is the Markham Royals, who have swiped top spot in the North division out from under the Tigers. The Royals now hold a four-point lead over Aurora, and also have a game in hand.<\/p>\n

Aurora returns to the ice on January 3 against the North York Rangers. They don\u2019t play another game at the Aurora Community Centre until January 9, hosting the Lindsay Muskies.<\/p>\n

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

If anything, at least the Aurora Tigers can head into their three-week holiday break on a high note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3lv","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 06:51:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12865","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=12865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}