{"id":34211,"date":"2024-02-16T13:22:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T18:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34211"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:15:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:15:32","slug":"frenette-fires-ot-winner-oletic-tallies-two-in-tigers-4-3-triumph-over-north-york-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/frenette-fires-ot-winner-oletic-tallies-two-in-tigers-4-3-triumph-over-north-york-rangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Frenette fires OT winner, Oletic tallies two in Tigers\u2019 4-3 triumph over North York Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Josh Frenette fired the OT winner and Tyler Oletic tallied two goals to lead the Aurora Tigers to an exciting 4-3 win over the North York Rangers on Saturday night at the Aurora Community Centre (ACC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers earned three of four points over the weekend after dropping a heartbreaking 3-2 OT loss on Friday night to the St. Mike\u2019s Buzzers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club\u2019s incremental improvement has been evident over the last seven games during which the Junior Tigers have cobbled together a 2-3-2 record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hard-hitting Oletic opened the scoring 15 minutes into the first period when he banged in a rebound past Rangers\u2019 netminder Amir Valiullin off a Jack Rispin blast from the blue line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call-up defenseman Lars Derstroff\u2014promoted from the PJHL Penetang Kings\u2014earned his first OJHL assist on Oletic\u2019s fourth goal of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rangers tied the game with 90 seconds left in the opening frame when Johnny Ringas squeezed a puck short side past call-up goaltender Christopher Thompson who was tested early and often by the visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson, who is having an excellent rookie season with the PJHL Schomberg Cougars, made a big blocker save two minutes into the second period and bailed out his d-men one minute later after an egregious giveaway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ranger forward Owen Ibbotson rifled a wrist shot from the left circle that banged off the post and past Thompson at 12:23 to give North York a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A line of rookie Tigers rallied the team and tied the game at 17:59 when Oletic redirected Kyle Baston\u2019s pass behind Valliulin to lift the spirits of supporters on a Saturday night which featured $7 beer sold by Town of Aurora staff between periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baston and Max Cervjakovs earned assists on the tying goal toasted by legally-aged ACC denizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veteran center Connor Russo gave the Tigers the lead with 28 seconds left in the middle frame when Josh Frenette\u2019s wrist shot was redirected by the Assistant Captain into the Rangers\u2019 net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russo\u2019s second of the season was assisted by the hard-driving Frenette and Assistant Captain Jace Lavallee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rangers continued to be a thorn in the paw of the Tigers at 13:45 of the third period when Ringas tallied his second goal of the game to pull the visitors into a 3-3 tie that the teams took into overtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North York ruined the Tigers\u2019 School Day game earlier in the season when their 7-5 victory sent home over 900 disappointed fans, but revenge for that result was meted out by Frenette in OT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no crying in their beer for Saturday night\u2019s crowd at the ACC, due to the heroics of Frank Castiglione, Russo, and Frenette while the teams battled 4-on-4 in the first extra period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castiglione, the Tigers\u2019 leading scorer, narrowly missed depositing a rebound behind Valliulin, but tireless work by Russo created space for Frenette who buried a laser wrist shot 5:37 into overtime to secure the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Captain Russo had a front row seat to Frenette\u2019s game-winner and praised his rookie teammate\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unreal how Josh has the knack to get open, especially when we\u2019re playing 4-on-4.  It took a great shot to beat their goalie tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Russo implied, Valliulin frustrated the Tigers all evening and turned aside 42 of 46 shots to earn First Star of the Game as selected by OJHL staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frenette\u2019s OT game-winning goal and his earlier assist earned him Second Star of the Game honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russo complimented Frenette\u2019s playmaking which set up the veteran center\u2019s go-ahead goal at the end of the second period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was Josh again being effective on the ice. He got it to the net and it was nice to get the monkey off my back by scoring a goal. It\u2019s been a while and it felt good to put one in the back of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The veteran Tiger also applauded Christopher Thompson\u2019s play between the pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was Chris\u2019s first full Junior A game.  We didn\u2019t have a backup goalie dressed tonight due to Yianni\u2019s injury last night against the Buzzers, so there was a lot of pressure on Chris. He played amazing.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson earned the W\u2014his first in the OJHL\u2014by repelling 25 of 28 Ranger shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the win over North York, Russo expressed relief that things have started turning around for the young squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough year\u2014lots of new faces in and out of the lineup, but we\u2019ve carried on. To have a weekend like this when we earn three out of four points is great.  We\u2019ve worked so hard to get better and I\u2019m excited for the young guys. We\u2019ve been building something for the last seven games and for next year.  We\u2019re staying optimistic and keeping it light at practice so we can keep morale high for our final games of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russo, an accomplished Elvis Presley impersonator, could aptly compare the Tigers\u2019 2023-24 season to a \u201cHeartbreak Hotel\u201d that left the team \u201cAll Shook Up\u201d after a \u201cBlue Christmas\u201d, but if the Tigers continue to show their \u201cBurning Love\u201d for improvement, they will dispel all the \u201cSuspicious Minds\u201d that counted this team out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charismatic Assistant Captain could also claim that there is no \u201cSurrender\u201d in these young Tigers, and they\u2019ll play with urgency for the rest of the OJHL season as if \u201cIt\u2019s Now or Never.\u201d There will be no crying like \u201cA Hound Dog.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers host the Wellington Dukes on Thursday, February 15 in a rare weekday matinee game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puck drop will be 2:30 at the ACC.  Former Tigers Captain and 2022-23 leading scorer Lucas Stanojevic returns to the ACC on Saturday night when Aurora hosts the Cobourg Cougars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening faceoff will be at 7.30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Josh Frenette fired the OT winner and Tyler Oletic tallied two goals to lead the Aurora Tigers to an exciting 4-3 win over the North York Rangers on Saturday night at the Aurora Community Centre (ACC). The Tigers earned three of four points over the weekend after dropping a heartbreaking 3-2 OT loss on Friday […]<\/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-34211","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\/p3D2k4-8TN","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 14:36:29","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\/34211","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=34211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}