{"id":36841,"date":"2025-09-18T15:16:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36841"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:49:18","slug":"hurricanes-wreck-junior-tigers-opening-night-party-with-5-3-comeback-victory-at-acc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hurricanes-wreck-junior-tigers-opening-night-party-with-5-3-comeback-victory-at-acc\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes wreck Junior Tigers\u2019 Opening Night party with 5-3 comeback victory at ACC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Tigers spoiled the Newmarket Hurricanes\u2019 home opener last Saturday afternoon at the Ray Twinney Recreation Centre and the visitors returned the favor on Saturday night at the ACC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers, who came into the game undefeated at 2-0, opened an impressive 3-1 lead after the first period and appeared to be on their way to a third consecutive victory. However, four unanswered goals by the Hurricanes ruined the Opening Night vibe created by over 783 fans in the stands and Newmarket posted a 5-3 win to improve their record to 2-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers provided free admission to Opening Night and distributed free t-shirts to the first 500 fans in attendance. The OJHL club saluted the legacy of legendary videographer Steve Mitchell prior to the game and Mitchell\u2019s family strode the red carpet to take part in the official puck drop alongside Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the poignant spotlit ceremony concluded and almost 800 fans settled into their seats, the Tigers provided hope for a big season by playing one of the best first periods the club has put forth in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two minutes and 30 seconds into the game, Nicholas Brady\u2019s wrist shot from the left point was tipped deftly by Luc Warner past Newmarket netminder Max Grovestine to stake the home side to a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the Assistant Captain\u2019s first of the season and the St. Andrew\u2019s College grad described his game-opening power play marker: \u201cIt was a fast goal that gave us early momentum and supplied some positive energy at the beginning of the first period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warner was flying up and down the right wing in the opening frame and narrowly missed a second goal on his next shift when Grovestine snared a puck labeled for the top left corner of the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visitors tied the game ninety seconds after Warner\u2019s goal when Chase Yanni buried the biscuit off the left faceoff circle with a snap shot high blocker side that eluded Aurora goaltender Jayden Rhee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The athletic rookie entered the game with the third-best save percentage in the OJHL after backstopping the Tigers to a 2-0 record with wins over the Hurricanes and the North York Rangers in his first two Junior hockey contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninety seconds later, the plucky Tigers picked up their goalie and restored their lead when Jamie Buscarini took Anrijs Bundseniek\u2019s pass, darted from behind the net, and tucked the puck in the short side past Grovestine. It was Bundseniek\u2019s fourth assist of the young season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke Howard\u2019s shot from the left point at 10:21 fluttered through a sea of players to not only give the Tigers a 3-1 lead, but it forced the Hurricanes to burn their timeout. Rhee responded to Newmarket\u2019s post-timeout push by making a timely kick save to preserve his club\u2019s hard-fought two-goal lead. Warner commented on the Tigers\u2019 first period performance: \u201cWe had a great start. All four lines were going and our power play clicked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Aurora Captain Simon Howard banged a snap shot off the shaft of Grovestine\u2019s stick, just narrowly missing the top right corner of the net, the Tigers maintained the pressure on the visitors and closed off the opening period with ferocious forechecking and some crowd-pleasing open ice hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Hurricanes opened the second period with their backup goalie in the crease and James Ruffell turned aside all fifteen shots he faced to help spur Newmarket\u2019s comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sebastian Catalano rifled a wrist shot from the left face-off circle that went off iron and past Rhee 5:57 into the middle frame to cut Aurora\u2019s lead to 3-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catalano\u2019s defensive partner Lucas Preiano tied the game 36 seconds later when his knuckler caromed off Rhee\u2019s trapper and dribbled past the goal line. After the two quick goals, Tigers\u2019 Head Coach Darcy Roy hooked his rookie goaltender in favor of backup Rafael DeFina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With sixteen seconds remaining in the middle frame, the Hurricanes took the lead when Nathan Philips shoveled a backhand pass toward the net that took a strange hop past DeFina and slid along the ice into the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newmarket scored its fourth consecutive goal with 6:24 left in the third period when Yanni converted Joseph Macchione\u2019s feed and snapped a wrist shot from between the circles past DeFina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yanni\u2019s second of the game secured his club\u2019s comeback victory\u2014much to the disappointment of Warner, who described his team\u2019s letdown in the second period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got carried away after a good first period and played like we already won the game. We stopped playing the kind of hockey that helped us win our first two games of the year. In the second and third periods, we weren\u2019t as efficient with our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a more positive note, Warner outlined what the Tigers need to do to secure two victories over Georgetown and Oakville at the Governor\u2019s Showcase games in Buffalo on Monday and Wednesday: \u201cWe need to play our game. We need to get off to a good start in both games and we need to be ready to play hard as soon as we get off the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warner, who was selected as the Game\u2019s Second Star for his one goal and one assist performance versus Newmarket, described his team\u2019s transformation from last year: \u201cOur team is so close already. All four lines have grit and skill. We\u2019re all in this together and we did a lot of team bonding at training camp before the season started. The team leaders have told our players our expectations for a good season and we\u2019re off to a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Aurora Tigers spoiled the Newmarket Hurricanes\u2019 home opener last Saturday afternoon at the Ray Twinney Recreation Centre and the visitors returned the favor on Saturday night at the ACC. The Tigers, who came into the game undefeated at 2-0, opened an impressive 3-1 lead after the first period and appeared to be on their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36842,"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-36841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-18-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Ad","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 09:53:55","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\/36841","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=36841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36843,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions\/36843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}