{"id":18386,"date":"2017-09-21T12:05:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T16:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18386"},"modified":"2017-09-27T18:09:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T22:09:42","slug":"tigers-light-up-rbc-champs-in-home-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tigers-light-up-rbc-champs-in-home-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers light up RBC champs in home opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Jake Bricknell is no stranger to the Cobourg Cougars lineup, although this season he finds himself on the other bench.
\nThe former Cougar, who helped Cobourg to the national title in the RBC Cup championship last season, now wears the \u201cC\u201d for the Aurora Tigers in his fifth year of junior hockey.
\nIt was Bricknell, familiar with the Cobourg style of play, who opened the scoring against his former team on Friday in the Tigers\u2019 home opener, potting a clapper from the top of the slot in front of an attendance of over 500 fans.
\nFrom there, Aurora took off, scoring three more times in the period, en route to an eventual 7 \u2013 1 win.
\nIt was a fitting decision for the club celebrating its fiftieth year, kicking off the evening\u2019s festivities with a ceremonial puck drop featuring some Tigers legends as well as those in the pro hockey spotlight.
\nFormer Maple Leaf Mike Johnson, as well as Jason Maslakow, known affectionately by Leafs fans as \u201cDart Guy\u201d from April\u2019s playoff run, were on hand to help out.
\nBricknell\u2019s two goals and three assists helped him maintain the league scoring lead after the first week of play, adding to his four-point night against the Cougars in the first half of their doubleheader last Monday.
\nThe veteran player seems to have found immediate chemistry with a rookie forward in Anthony Romano, a 16-year-old who is committed to Clarkson University next season. Romano and Bricknell have connected for a number of goals in the first two games of the season while playing on a line, with Romano earned two goals and two assists in Friday\u2019s contest.
\n\u201cWhat a line,\u201d said Tigers announcer Kevin Dean. \u201c(Elijah) Gonsalves, Romano, and Bricknell will be exciting.\u201d
\nBradley Van Schubert, a former OHLer with the Owen Sound Attack and Guelph Storm, was cool between the pipes in making 20 saves on 21 Cobourg shots.
\nThe convincing win was the second in a row for the Tigers, who are in unfamiliar territory after allowing just two goals over their first two games against the defending league champions.
\nA motto of \u201cThis Year is Going to Be Different\u201d is the inspiration for the Junior A club this year after a disastrous 2016-17 season that saw the Tigers fall to last in the entire OJHL.
\nTeam owner Jim Thomson and his staff have taken a veteran approach with choosing this year\u2019s squad, opting for seasoned vets including a number of ex-OHLers over young up-and-comers.
\nAs is the case in junior hockey circles, a heavy turnover rate has left just four members of last year\u2019s team on the roster, in forwards Jacob Kostopolous, Tyler Davis, and Steve Maclean, and defenseman James Thomson, on the roster.
\nAurora and the Newmarket Hurricanes remain the only unbeaten teams in the OJHL\u2019s Northeast Division.
\nThe Tigers are in Buffalo on Thursday for the annual OJHL Showcase, and return to the Aurora Community Centre on Friday to host the Trenton Golden Hawks.
\nPuck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.
\nFor stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.auroratigers.pointstreak.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte Jake Bricknell is no stranger to the Cobourg Cougars lineup, although this season he finds himself on the other bench. The former Cougar, who helped Cobourg to the national title in the RBC Cup championship last season, now wears the \u201cC\u201d for the Aurora Tigers in his fifth year of junior hockey. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/2017-09-21-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4My","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 13:13:03","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\/18386","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=18386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}