{"id":21830,"date":"2018-10-10T16:57:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T20:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21830"},"modified":"2018-10-17T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T20:24:07","slug":"tigers-continue-to-pace-ojhl-north-division-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tigers-continue-to-pace-ojhl-north-division-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers continue to pace OJHL North division lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This year\u2019s incarnation of the Aurora Tigers can be temporarily muzzled, but they are out to prove they can\u2019t be tamed.
\nOne game after a seven-game winning streak was snapped on Saturday, a surprise 3 \u2013 0 shutout to the Wellington Dukes, Aurora returned back to the ice on Monday with a roar in a 5 \u2013 1 drubbing of the Stouffville Spirit on Monday.
\nThe Tigers threw 31 shots on the Stouffville net, led by two goals from Joseph Mizzi and an impressive two-for-five conversion rate on the power play.
\nIn just his first season behind the Tigers bench, head coach Mario Cicchillo has kept Aurora at the top of the NorthWest division since game one, helping his team to an 8-2-2 start and a healthy five-point lead over the Markham Royals.
\nOJHL analyst Joe Montesano called Cicchillo \u201cthe most underrated coach in the league.\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a great coach,\u201d said Montesano. \u201cHis team is a lot younger, more inexperienced, but he also has guys like (team-leading scorer) Mizzi with great experience. These guys can play.\u201d
\nMizzi, in his second full year with the club, has jumped out to near the top of the league scoring title with 22 points early on.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s fast, he can shoot, he can score,\u201d said Montesano. \u201cThe team is stacked.\u201d
\nKeeping up with tradition, much of the Tigers\u2019 early season success can be chalked up to their heavy offensive production: through the first twelve games on the schedule, the Tigers are averaging 3.33 goals per game, paced by veteran Mizzi and incoming ex-OHLer Kyle Bollers.
\nUnlike past years, however, this year\u2019s blue line seems much more capable of posting their own lines on the stat sheet. Newcomer Jacob Palandra has jumped out to a nine point effort in his first junior league season, while captain Steven MacLean is already just six points shy of his 14-point total from the entire last season.
\nMacLean credits his early success, in his first year wearing the \u2018C\u2019 on his chest, with his \u201ccalming influence\u201d on the ice.
\n\u201cI\u2019m a shutdown defenseman with an offensive ability,\u201d said MacLean. \u201cI give it everything I\u2019ve got in practice and in games.\u201d
\nThat sense of calm may translate to his teammates skating alongside him, though at six-foot-seven, it\u2019s doubtful his opponents feel the same when matched up against the big blue liner.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re looking over people. Your head is over everyone.\u201d
\nAs for his views on the remainder of the schedule, MacLean sees the future as just as bright as the past.
\n\u201cThis team is something special. We think we have the tools to make it on a far run, we\u2019re just taking it day by day and we\u2019re hoping we can do that.\u201d
\nThe Tigers will be hoping to improve on their 3-1-1 record at home with nine of their next ten games going down at the Aurora Community Centre over the next month.
\nThey host the Kingston Voyageurs (4-2-2-1) on Friday for the first time this season, before the Lindsay Muskies (2-6-0-0) come to town on Saturday.
\nBoth puck drops are set for 7:30 p.m.
\nFor stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s incarnation of the Aurora Tigers can be temporarily muzzled, but they are out to prove they can\u2019t be tamed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21843,"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-21830","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\/2018\/10\/2018-10-11-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5G6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 16:50:53","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\/21830","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=21830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}