{"id":25311,"date":"2019-11-29T15:35:29","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T20:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25311"},"modified":"2019-11-29T15:35:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T20:35:37","slug":"defensive-woes-continue-for-freefalling-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/defensive-woes-continue-for-freefalling-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"Defensive woes continue for freefalling Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was the story of two seasons: one on\na meteoric rise to the top, one remaining locked in the basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Tigers met the Stouffville\nSpirit for the second time in six days on Friday, coming off a 6 \u2013 3 loss on\nNovember 13, securing the Spirit seventeen points in their last ten games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Aurora, Friday\u2019s home match at the\nAurora Community Centre meant an opportunity to snap their current four-game\nlosing streak, and perhaps bring their number of wins on the season up to a\nhandful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spirit had other plans: the offense\ncame out guns blazing, throwing fourteen shots on Aurora keeper Andrew\nBarwinski in the first period alone, who has recently taken the net from\nslumping veteran Christian Filippetti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barwinski managed to stop all but one\npuck in the opening frame, though the onslaught continued into the second\nperiod, where Stouffville took a 3 \u2013 0 lead. Jackson Clark finally stopped the\nbleeding for the Tigers with just over five minutes to go in the period with\nhis seventh goal of the year, though it was too little, too late in an eventual\n5 \u2013 2 loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steven Li managed the Tigers lone other\ngoal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With new head coach Jim Wells Jr. now\nleaning heavily on Barwinski as the backstop, he returned to the net on\nSaturday to face the Markham Royals, faring no better in a 3 \u2013 1 loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markham spread out three goals over the\nthree periods, while Jalen Balbosa was the only Tiger to find the back of the\nnet in the second frame. Barwinski made 27 stops on the 30 shots he faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest pair of losses comes as an\nextra blow for the Tigers, who have failed to turn it around under the tutelage\nof Wells, unable to gain a point in his three games as the top dog behind the\nbench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has all been part of just the latest\nstreak this season, this one adding up to six games lost. That brings the\nTigers to a record of 4-20-0-3, eight points behind the Pickering Panthers in\nthe North division\u2019s basement, and 23 back of the division-leading Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any chance of turning around the season\nhas to begin with a complete overhaul of the defensive system, with the Tigers\ngiving up a dismal 4.63 goals per game. That tops only the Lindsay Muskies in\nthe league, with the two clubs well behind the rest of the OJHL in the\ncategory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is apt to point out, however, there\nare some shining lights in this dim season: defenseman Jonathan Balah has been\nnamed to Saturday\u2019s OJHL All-Star Game roster in Oakville, leading the Tigers\nin scoring with twenty points on the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Announced to the OJHL Prospects Game is\nKaleb Nelson, at just 16-years-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent commit to Providence College\nhas shone in his first junior league season, sitting third in team scoring with\nthirteen points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affiliate Ryan Dunbar from the\nYork-Simcoe Express will also take part in the OJHL Affiliate Players Game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandwiching Saturday\u2019s All-Star\nfestivities is a hosting Friday evening of the Mississauga Chargers, and a\nvisit to Wellington on Sunday to face the league-leading Dukes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s opening faceoff is set for 7:30\np.m. at the Aurora Community Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For stats, schedules, and more information, visit www.auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jake Courtepatte <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the story of two seasons: one on a meteoric rise to the top, one remaining locked in the basement. The Aurora Tigers met the Stouffville Spirit for the second time in six days on Friday, coming off a 6 \u2013 3 loss on November 13, securing the Spirit seventeen points in their last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Af","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 08:13:42","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\/25311","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=25311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}