{"id":37009,"date":"2025-10-16T13:35:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37009"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:36:07","slug":"humphries-and-howard-lead-tigers-to-2-1-win-over-2-ranked-leamington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/humphries-and-howard-lead-tigers-to-2-1-win-over-2-ranked-leamington\/","title":{"rendered":"Humphries and Howard lead Tigers to 2-1 win over #2-ranked Leamington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora netminder Matthew Humphries made 40 saves and Tigers\u2019 Captain Simon Howard produced a 2-point night to lead the home side to a thrilling 2-1 win over the Leamington Flyers on Friday night at the ACC.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers\u2019 victory over the second-place Flyers snapped a five-game losing streak and handed Leamington its second loss of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Flyers\u2019 .818 winning percentage is second in the 24-team OJHL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain Simon Howard described the importance of the Tigers\u2019 effective start versus the Flyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was important to get off to a fast start tonight. We\u2019ve been ready to go all week after our practices prepared us for this game.  We changed a lot of things this week and it was great to see how all our hard work in practice showed up in tonight\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard\u2019s early goal at 2:21 into the first period got his club off to the fast start it needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6\u20194\u201d centre took a lead pass from new linemate and former OHL Flint Firebird Charlie Hotles, crossed the blue line with space, and fired a shot under the crossbar that eluded Flyers\u2019 goaltender Gannon Hunter glove side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers\u2019 colorful play-by-play announcer Kevin Dean was at his animated best in the Steve Mitchell Media Booth during the Captain\u2019s big goal: \u201cHoward buries it top shelf with an absolute cannon!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Captain with the cannon described the scoring play: \u201cIt was a turnover by them and I was calling for the puck. Chuck put it right on my stick and I was able to go top corner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers protected their 1-0 lead for over forty-eight minutes of play with grit and discipline, but the Flyers tied the game at 9:22 of the third period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leamington forward Reid Hayes got loose on a set up pass by Spencer Vandenberg and fired a wrist shot that bulged the twine behind Humphries\u2014the only shot that eluded the brilliant Aurora netminder during his masterful stifling of the Flyers\u2019 high-powered offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undaunted by Hayes\u2019s equalizer, the valiant Tigers demonstrated much fortitude by restoring their lead within 27 seconds. Captain Howard earned the secondary assist on Thomas Leone\u2019s game-winning goal at 9:37 and described his teammate\u2019s brilliant breakaway scoring touch: \u201cIt was off a key faceoff and I was able to get the puck to Hotles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a nice play by Chuck and Thomas was wheeling.  He\u2019s got great finish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leone sped through the Flyers\u2019 defensive pairing and fired the puck high stick side just over Hunter\u2019s shoulder and under the crossbar. His marksmanship elicited a spirited celly along the end boards behind the Leamington net as weeks of frustration poured off Aurora\u2019s talented Junior A squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leone\u2019s second of the season steeled the resolution of the Tigers with 10 minutes to play and Humphries\u2014who most recently played for the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL\u2014made four high quality saves in the final six minutes to cover any gaps in Aurora\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6\u20194\u201d keeper\u2014who starred for the Tigers last season before his promotion to the OHL\u2014stopped 40 of the 41 shots he faced and was particularly effective in the waning seconds of the game when Hunter was pulled to give Leamington an extra attacker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethan Walker\u2019s wicked wrist shot from the right circle, off a set play by Leamington, was surrounded by Humphries\u2019 chest protector and he controlled the rebound to stave off a secondary scoring opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sensational side-to-side save had the ACC buzzing and was a prelude to Humphries being mobbed by his teammates as time expired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Howard described Humphries\u2019s return performance between the pipes: \u201cHe was unbelievable tonight. I just expect it from him since he played so well for us last year. Humphries is an elite goaltender. We all know he\u2019s great. He made big saves all night and allowed us to play freely and with confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Tales<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More good news on the Tigers\u2019 front.  Defenseman Luke Howard has committed to the NCAA Division 1 Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers for the 2026-2027 season.  A feature on Howard\u2019s US College commitment will follow in the October 22 edition of The Auroran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming Attractions<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eighth-place Tigers (4-6-0-0) host their regional rivals from King Township (8-4-0-0) on Friday, October 17.  Puck drop versus the sixth-place Rebellion\u2014voted 9th by League GM\u2019s in the most recent OJHL Power Rankings Top Ten List– will be 7.30 p.m. at the Aurora Community Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Aurora netminder Matthew Humphries made 40 saves and Tigers\u2019 Captain Simon Howard produced a 2-point night to lead the home side to a thrilling 2-1 win over the Leamington Flyers on Friday night at the ACC.\u00a0 The Tigers\u2019 victory over the second-place Flyers snapped a five-game losing streak and handed Leamington its second loss of […]<\/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-37009","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\/p3D2k4-9CV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 04:41:35","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\/37009","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=37009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37010,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37009\/revisions\/37010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}