{"id":34172,"date":"2024-02-08T16:42:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34172"},"modified":"2024-02-16T13:22:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T18:22:07","slug":"young-tigers-earn-a-point-in-a-hard-fought-double-overtime-4-3-loss-to-stouffville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/young-tigers-earn-a-point-in-a-hard-fought-double-overtime-4-3-loss-to-stouffville\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Tigers earn a point in a hard-fought double overtime 4-3 loss to Stouffville"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Odaro Ewere scored the winning goal at 6:12 during the second overtime period to lead the Stouffville Spirit to a 4-3 victory over the Aurora Tigers at the ACC on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a rare OJHL weekday matinee, the young and improving Tigers earned their third point in three games during which they have accrued a 1-1-1 record. They also had their best flurry of offense in months by scoring three goals in six minutes in the third period, thus revealing the team\u2019s scoring potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goals were at a premium in the first two periods of play in this contest between regional rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defenseman Nathan Twohey\u2019s power play goal at 8:38 of the second period broke a scoreless deadlock and Stouffville spirited their 1-0 lead to the dressing room after 40 minutes of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams exploded for five goals in the final frame, four of which were scored in a three-minute offensive outburst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tigers\u2019 forward Max Cervjakovs tied the game three minutes into the third period with Jace Lavallee and Liam Longo earning assists on the swift-skating Latvian\u2019s fourth goal of the season. 80 seconds later, Andoni Fimis restored the visitors\u2019 one-goal lead, but the young Tigers responded confidently to the challenge. 37 seconds after Fimis scored for Stouffville, Tigers\u2019 leading scorer Frank Castiglione fired his 12th goal of his rookie campaign to tie the game with helpers going to Michael Schiavone and Keegan Decaluwe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly one minute later, rookie Tigers forward Josh Frenette tallied the home team\u2019s third goal in six minutes to take a 3-2 lead. Frenette\u2019s fifth of his rookie campaign, assisted by Cervjakovs and Carson Littlejohn, showed the rookie-laden team\u2019s offensive promise as the free-wheeling Tigers turned in their most productive third period performance in months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, the young squad could not hold the lead and Spirit forward Charles Vanhaverbeke scored at 13:02 to pull Stouffville into a 3-3 tie and force overtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the heartbreaking loss in double-overtime, Tigers Captain Keegan Decaluwe remained upbeat, especially with his team\u2019s flurry of goals in the third period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were clicking all game and we were creating chances in the first and second periods, too. The guys were getting down about all the missed opportunities, but we kept working and when Max got the first one, it started a good streak of goals for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain Decaluwe complimented Cervjakovs\u2019s skill as displayed against Stouffville: \u201cMax sees the ice so well and better than most players.  He\u2019s fast and silky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decaluwe also noted the recent improved performance of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a really tough stretch in the schedule, but being back home has really helped us.  Our coaches have been harping on details at practice and we\u2019re learning to play properly within the systems in place.  We\u2019re young guys that are trying to get better every game.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young Tigers captain also applauded the recent efforts on and off the ice of rookie netminder Yianni Karkoulas who turned aside 33 of Stouffville\u2019s 37 shots and was voted Second Star of the Game by OJHL staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith Yianni, it all starts in the room. He\u2019s a great guy\u2014an excellent teammate.  He doesn\u2019t get too high and he doesn\u2019t get too low. His athleticism is insane. He\u2019s going to be a dynamite Junior A goalie. I\u2019ve been trying to beat him glove side in practice all season and I bet I\u2019ve only put three by him in five months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate Captain Decaluwe\u2019s assessment, fans are invited to watch on the OJHL website Karkoulas\u2019s glove save at 7:51 of the second period to thwart a 2-on-1 break by the Spirit. It was a stop to savor and will be a candidate for the Top 5 Plays of 2023-24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers host St. Michael\u2019s on Friday, February 9 and the North York Rangers on Saturday, February 10. Both games start at 7.30 p.m. at the ACC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Odaro Ewere scored the winning goal at 6:12 during the second overtime period to lead the Stouffville Spirit to a 4-3 victory over the Aurora Tigers at the ACC on Thursday afternoon. In a rare OJHL weekday matinee, the young and improving Tigers earned their third point in three games during which they have accrued […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34172","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\/p3D2k4-8Ta","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 04:30:14","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\/34172","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=34172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}