51 regular season games, 3 playoff series, a 4 game round robin. This lengthy process is a success in itself, but 1 more win will take a team further than it ever has.

In this story:
Kelly Thomson, Thomas Menechella, Taylor Edwards, Tyler Bryden

Related:
More Nats

302 young men had their hockey dream fulfilled when they were chosen in the OHL Priority Selection.  Brent Lale has some of the highlights from the opening round.

Thorold Blackhawks' goal tender, Tom Trowell, watches as team mate Robert Bentavegna deflects the puck off the stick of St. Catharines Falcons' Kelly Barchan during Junior B hockey playoff action

Cd

Members of the Niagara Falls Canucks celebrate a win against the St. Catharines Falcons at the Gale Centre

St. Catharines Falcons' forward Kelly Geoffrey battles for position with Niagara Falls Canucks' Myles Micallef

This is how the paper ran my photos on their front page.

Cd

Dustin Scott (14), of the Niagara Falls Canucks hits Kenny Bradford (3) of the St. Catharines Falcons into the boards

Jacob Rattie (35), goaltender of the Niagara Falls Canucks scrambles to save a shot off the stick of Zenon Byblow (19) of the St. Catharines Falcons while Reed Smith of the Canucks defends

Cd

Craig McDowell (18), of the Niagara Falls Canucks hits Jake LaPlante (55), of the St. Catharines Falcons into the boards

Aaron Engelage (15) and Kenny Bradford (3) of the St. Catharines Falcons collide into Dustin Scott (14) of the Niagara Falls Canucks

Memebers of the St. Catharines Falcons celebrate a goal as Eric Diodati of the Niagara Falls Canucks skates by during action from Golden Horseshoe Hockey

Cd

For more information on how these two teams stack up click here: http://gojhl.stats.pointstreak.com/pregamenotes.html?gameid=1078975

SATURDAY MARCH 8TH
8:30AM Grey-Bruce vs. Niagara Falls SP1
9:15AM Guelph vs. St. Catharines SP2
10:30AM Brampton vs. Halton SP1
11:15AM Burlington vs. Welland SP2
12:30PM Niagara Falls vs. Oakville SP1
2:30PM Halton vs. Grey-Bruce SP1
3:15PM St. Catharines vs. Hamilton SP2
4:30PM Oakville vs. Brampton SP1
5:15PM Welland vs. Guelph SP2
7:15PM Hamilton vs. Burlington SP2

SUNDAY MARCH 9TH
12:00 PM Halton 4 vs. St. Catharines 2 (EN)
12:15 PM Oakville 4 vs. Welland 1

Congratulations and good luck to the Halton Hills Hurricanes and Oakville Jr. Rangers for advancing to next week’s playoff round in Aurora.

]]> http://dishdaily.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/st-catharines-vs-welland-227/ Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:56:04 +0000 Dish http://dishdaily.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/st-catharines-vs-welland-227/ vs.

St. Catharines Jr. Falcons vs. Welland Mountainview Homes Tigers (Major Peewee AAA)

Despite trailing the Welland Mountainview Homes Tigers in the SCTA Major Peewee AAA standings by 30 points going into tonight’s contest, it was the Jr. Falcons who appeared to be the better club this evening for much of the game.  If not for some late goaltending heroics by Welland netminder #30 Spencer Smith, the end result could have been far different than the 4-2 (EN) Welland win that resulted.

St. Catharines jumped out to a two-goal first period advantage when #12 Riley Dunda scored at 3:44 from #4 Jordan Maletta and #10 Josh Kozielski, and Maletta followed up at 8:27 from Kozielski and #8 Calvin Bond to give the vistors the lead by a deuce.  The Tigers would reply before period’s end when #14 Tyler Jackson tallied from #18 Hunter Garlent and #5 Damien Alfieri at 9:44.

Welland would net the equalizer at 6:12 of the middle period when #10 Anthony Difruscia beat Jr. Falcons backstop #1 Nolan Baker, to tie the game at two, on passes from #6 Luke Doherty and Smith.  Garlent would score the game winner at 12:09 of the third period on set-ups from Jackson and #17 Zach Olsson, and then would deposit an empty-net goal, assisted by #7 Jake Evans, into the Jr. Falcons open cage at 14:43 to seal the home-side victory.

Welland’s empty-net goal came during its only power-play opportunity of the evening, while St. Catharines was scoreless in two man-advantage situations during the game.  The Tigers out-shot the Jr. Falcons overall by a margin of 32-20.  The Tigers improve to 26-7-2 on the year, with their final regular-season game being played at home against the Guelph Jr. Storm Cooperators this upcoming Saturday afternoon.

Here is one of the many fine saves made by Spencer Smith to preserve the lead…

Smith snatches victory with stunning stops like this one…

►

vs.

A pair of goals from #8 Mitchell Rooney and #11 Ty Learn, along with a single marker from #17 Darcy Muller paced the Welland Cogeco Tigers past the visiting St. Catharines Jr. Falcons on Saturday afternoon in SCTA Minor Peewee AAA action at the Welland Arena.

Rooney would score the game’s first goal by beating Jr. Falcons netminder #30 Matthew Cormier at 4:01 of the first period.  St. Catharines would reply with a power-play tally from #8 Brady Allen, assisted by #3 Jeremy Spiece at 8:36 of the opening frame to tie the game at one.

#17 Darcy Muller would strike back for the Tigers, netting the go-ahead goal just over a minute later, at 9:37, from #10 Garnet McComber and #18 Zach Main.  Rooney would net his second of the game at 0:29 of the second period from #15 Matt Gillard to take a 3-1 lead before Learn potted his first of two at 10:01.

St. Catharines would score while short-handed when #10 Samuel Berg beat Welland netminder #1 Doug McDermott at 14:03 of the middle period on a feed from #16 Jacob Parisotto to cut the Tigers’ advantage in half.

Learn would notch his second of the game at 13:12 of the third period, from #19 Matt Martin and #3 Cody LeVasseur to round out the day’s scoring.

Welland was 0-for-2 on the power-play, while St. Catharines was 1-for-5 with the extra attacker in the contest.  The Tigers improve to 13-10-4 on the year with the win, and now face a pair of road games against Halton and Brampton in the coming week.

vs.

If the Welland Mountainview Homes Tigers would have attacked the St. Catharines Jr. Falcons in the same manner that they attacked the pizza at the post-game get-together, yesterday’s result would have been far different from the 2-0 (EN) shutout victory in favour of the Jr. Falcons that transpired.

I’m pretty confident in saying that I saw more physical battles won in line waiting for pizza than I did during their game that took place beforehand.  These Tigers need to consistently show that same hunger on the ice if they hope to be successful, because as one of the top teams in the division, the other teams are always coming in with the idea of earning the upset victory against them.

Absent from much of yesterday’s contest was the excellent team-play that makes this team so effective.  Failure to involve the defencemen meaningfully in the offence also limits this team’s potency, as does a power-play which continues to struggle.

Earning the shutout in goal for the Jr. Falcons was #30 Justin Nicholls while #1 Braeden Thoms took the loss for the Tigers, dropping them to 21-5-1 on the season.  Welland is back in action Sunday afternoon against the Burlington Eagles on the road before facing Oakville at home on Saturday afternoon.

vs.

The Welland Front Row Sports Tigers came out on top 8-6 in a back-and-forth, penalty-filled affair against the visiting St. Catharines Jr. Falcons at the Welland Main Arena Thursday night in SCTA Major Midget AAA action.

#77 Brandon Daniel paced the home side with two goals to improve the team to 6-16-3 on the season. #96 Jamie Tyminski with a goal and an assist, #88 Matt Goch and #18 Jordan Daradick with two assists apiece, each recorded multi-point games for the Tigers to go along with single tallies from #10 Dylan Braun, #14 Josh Daradick, #17 Walter Lumsden, #15 Cody Loeffen and #91 Emmett Beedom.  #55 Wes McPherson found his name on the scoresheet by virtue of setting up Daniel’s first of two goals.

Welland opened the game’s scoring on the power-play in the first period when Tyminski put a pass from Goch into the St. Catharines net at 3:05.  The Tigers extended their lead at 4:30 when Daniel found the mesh at 4:30.  The Falcons then scored four unanswered goals to pull ahead 4-2 before Welland’s Braun replied with only two seconds remaining in the first period to pull closer at 4-3.

The teams exchanged goals in the second period, for a 5-4 Falcons’ advantage heading into the intermission.  Welland came out stronger in the third and scored four of the five goals in the period to capture the come-from-behind victory.

#20 Riley Jakobschuk and #21 Jeremy Simpson were main catalysts for the Jr. Falcons’ offense on the evening, providing two goals and an assist, and a goal and two assists, respectively. #14 Jordan Edl also contributed two goals on the night to go along with a single tally from #26 Kamil Oubayan and a lone assist from #19 Dillon Parnell.

Welland was 2-for-6 with the man-advantage on the night, while St. Catharines struck twice in nine opportunities with the extra-attacker.  The Tigers travel to Burlington for their next game on Tuesday evening before returning home to face the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs on Thursday night.

#14 Alex Masciovecchio led the Tigers’ charge with a goal and two assists as the Welland Buckner’s Source for Sports Tigers defeated the visiting St. Catharines Cafe Amadio Falcons in recent Minor Atom AAA action.  #30 Brandon McCorriston was the recipient of another shutout as his teammates did a masterful job in front of him of grounding the Falcons.  Registering the other goals for the Tigers were #8 Joseph Bleich, #16 Thomas Young, #12 Conor Timmins and #7 Ben Evans.  Welland now improves to 11-4-3 on the season and will host Guelph on Saturday afternoon in their next contest.

Local sportswriter Bill Potrecz  recently featured a profile on goaltender Nick Hay of the St. Catharines Bantam AAA Jr. Falcons, who along with his parents decided to sponsor his jersey on behalf of the Right To Play organization.

For the full story, please read the article here:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=815450&auth=BILL+POTRECZ

I thought this act deserved a little more publicity in the hockey community, so I’ve reposted it here.

Thank you Nick and your parents for being just one example of the great people that are involved with minor sports in our communities.  While the attention-grabbing headlines focus on the ugly incidents that occur, such as the Novice incident at that Powerplay tournament this year, these are the type of stories that should be written about more often because they truly indicative of what minor sports is all about.

htttp://www.righttoplay.com

I understand from the article that Nick is an aspiring sportswriter.  May I take this time to remind him and any other aspiring writers out there, that they are always more than welcome to make submissions to these pages.  This is not simply a “Welland” blog, although most of the stories will be from here because that is where I am based.

Anything worthy of receiving some attention is more than welcome, so feel free to send your success stories or funny moments to me at  jdisher@cogeco.ca for consideration in a future post.

Dish

Photo Credits: Kim MacDonald, Frugal Photo

http://www.frugalphoto.ca

While Team Red were able to pull out a 4-3 victory, despite the strong play of Welland Tigers #44 Jesse Ross, #21 Dustin Gatt and #25 Emmett Beedom, on behalf of Team White.  Ross, well-known for his strong physical style of play, used a bone-jarring hit in the defensive zone to take away the puck and then proceeded down the full-length of the ice, using the give-and-go with his wingman to perfection, to get lined up for a one-time blast that made its way past Team Red netminder, Bobby Rain of Oakville, at 7:23 of the second period.

Welland teammate, #21 Dustin Gatt, scored with six minutes remaining in the middle frame, using a nifty play to come out from the corner boards and even up the game at 3-3.  The game would remain deadlocked until 4:43 left to play when Team Red would land the go-ahead marker.

Team White continued to press for the tying goal in the final moments, with #91 Emmett Beedom using an end-to-end rush to create a great scoring chance with two minutes remaining, only to be thwarted on the play by the outstretched pad of Brampton’s Brad Parzych.  More chances ensued after Team White pulled their netminder in favour of the extra-attacker, but in the end they were not able to land the equalizer.

This contest, as expected, was a great showcase of the talent on display locally each week. Fans would be wise to keep their calendars open for when the elite of the SCTA take on the best from the ETA, in a second All-Star Game to be played in Oshawa on January 26 at 3:30pm.

The St. Catharines Falcons soared past the visiting Welland Cogeco Tigers 5-3 in Minor Peewee AAA action on Monday evening in the Garden City.  Scoring for the Tigers in the loss were #11 Ty Learn, #14 Joey Azotini and #2 John DiLorenzo.  The Tigers slip to 9-6-3 with this setback but look to make an impact during competition this week at the International Blueline tournament in Kitchener.  The Tigers will return to regular season play against the Oakville Rangers at home on November 30.

The Welland Buckner’s Source for Sports Tigers clawed up the visiting St. Catharines Falcons 6-0 in Minor Atom AAA play at the Welland Youth Arena on Saturday afternoon.  #1 James Lawrence earned his first shutout of the year, thanks to great support in front of him, offensively and defensively.  Six different Tigers scored in the victory with #9 Karl Lavoie, #10 Chad Maurice, #11 Chase White, #17 Christian Girhiny, #7 Ben Evans and #16 Thomas Young each lighting the lamp once.  The Tigers bump up to 5-2-1 with the win and look to continue their success next Saturday afternoon at home against the Brampton Battalion.

The Welland Harpwood’s Trophies Tigers catapulted past St. Catharines Falcons 10-7 in recent Novice AAA action on the road in the Garden City.  #4 Nicholas Villella and #7 Ryan Miotto each led the way with three goals apiece, while #5 Lucas Thorne netted two goals and #16 Noah Blakely and #9 Ben Fox each tallied once to put the Tigers at 4-4-1 on the season.  #8 Nicholas Volpatti and #2 #2 Jesse Burger each recorded four helpers in the road win.  The Tigers take on Brampton at home Saturday afternoon in their next scheduled contest.

The Welland Shopper’s Drug Mart Tigers look ready to roar this season. The Tigers have gone undefeated during their exhibition games during the preseason, and look to be in fine form. A couple nice deflections lead to some pretty goals by the Tigers as they downed the Falcons 7-1 in their regular season opener.

The Welland Shoppers Drug Mart Tigers clipped the wings of the St. Catharines Falcons by defeating them 9-0 in recent Major Atom AAA play.

#30 Jovi Clarke recorded his second shutout in regular season action and was greatly helped by an outpouring of offense from his Tigers teammates. #19 Kamden MacNeil, #12 Sam Fennell, and #14 Malcolm Lynett each chipped in two apiece, while #10 Spencer Fox, #11 Brycen Thoms and #16 Daniel Volpatti each potted single markers in the convincing whitewash of the Falcons. #10 Fox led the team with three helpers, with two each from #16 Daniel Volpatti and #11 Brycen Thoms, and single assists provided by #14 Malcolm Lynett, #17 Reise Huard, #7 Connor Walters, #8 Shane Smythe, #15 Nathan McDuff and #4 Caleb Clarkson.

The Tigers climbed back to .500 hockey with the win, evening their record at 5-5-0.

If not for the pre-game warm-up, #1 Brett Sinclair, might not have seen any pucks come his way this evening. While his evening was an extremely easy one, earning a 5-0 shutout over the Welland E.S. Fox Limited Tigers on the road, the same cannot be said for Welland goaltender, #20 Shane McLean.

#20 McLean put in another excellent performance for the home side in a losing cause this evening, something that cannot be said about the majority of his teammates on this night. While he stopped as many shots as he could get to, a lax defensive effort and an offense that could not get on track made things extremely difficult for him all game long.

St. Catharines is off to a fine start this season, now with an 8-1-1 record, so it is not a complete surprise to see them win this game, especially considering that it is no secret that Welland has struggled to put pucks into the net all season. This is the fifth time this season that the Tigers have been held scoreless in a game, however, they have also shut out their opponents on three occasions. This Tigers team can certainly play better and smarter than what they displayed tonight but they will need to completely re-focus heading into their rematch on Sunday against this same Falcons team if they want to avoid a repeat of this lopsided loss.

The Tigers went 0-for-2 on the powerplay, while the Falcons were 1-for-2. The Tigers record now stands at 5-9-0 with tonight’s loss.

#18 Brooker Muir’s strong play of late continued today as he powered the Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers past the visiting St. Catharines Falcons 6-3 in SCTA Minor Bantam AAA play today at the Welland Arena.

Muir led the team with three goals and an assist, with #4 Drake Nadeau contributing one goal and two assists, #9 Brett Larocque a goal and an assist, #19 Cole McKnight a single tally, and #17 Morgan Lavoie adding two helpers for the home side in the 6-3 win.

The Tigers stormed out of the gate in the first period, and although no goals were scoring in the opening ten minutes, Welland created the majority of outstanding scoring opportunities. St. Catharines #1 Michael Gallardi played extremely well in the initial period to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard, and keep the Jr. Falcons in this game.

St. Catharines finally started to get things rolling in the second period, but thanks to another stellar performance from goaltender #1 Korey Bedard and some great defensive play, the game was tied at two heading into the second intermission. #2 Cameron Blakely broke up a breakaway chance from a streaking Falcons forward with just under seven minutes to play in the second by using a great diving poke check to knock the puck past the net and out of harm’s way. Moments later #5 Brett Golding sacrificed his body in blocking a shot in front of the net, which is just a tiny demonstration of the level of commitment this team has made towards improving on last year’s disappointing performance. The effort put forth by every Tiger in uniform, while it doesn’t always end up on the scoresheet, as was the case when #11 Denis Creighton rang a blast off the crossbar in the third period is something that all in Tiger nation can be very proud of this season.

Neither team was able to capitalize on the man-advantage today, with St. Catharines going 0-for-2 and Welland going 0-for-3.

Today’s win improves the Tigers record to 4-5-3 heading into tomorrow’s meeting in Brampton with the Jr. Battalion, where they will seek revenge from their season-opening 5-1 defeat before facing Brampton at home again next Saturday.

The Welland Cogeco Tigers held on to defeat the St. Catharines Front Row Sports Falcons 9-6 in SCTA Minor Peewee AAA action today at the Welland Arena.

After a relatively quiet first period, with St. Catharines registering the lone goal at 4:29, Welland came to life in the second frame and built up a 6-2 advantage on the strength of three even-strength goals, one powerplay tally and one short-handed marker.

Welland cushioned their lead further by adding a sixth goal at 1:46 into the third, but then seemed to fade in the middle part of the period, allowing two short-handed markers, and nearly a third, all during the same penalty, before recovering late to salvage the win.

Welland closed out the game strongly, with #8 Mitchell Rooney scoring a beautiful goal on the powerplay at 11:25. Rooney skated around the net and waited patiently for #1 Marcus Hlywka to make a move before depositing the puck upstairs out of his reach. The Falcons struck back quickly, scoring seven seconds later, before Rooney notched another tally on a rebound at 13:16 to restore the Tigers two-goal lead. Hlywka was pulled in favour of an extra-attacker with 1:02 remaining, and Welland took advantage of this by scoring into the empty net to complete the 9-6 victory on home ice and improve their season record to 8-5-2.

Several Tigers recorded multi-point games including #12 Tyler Pulchalski, #8 Mitchell Rooney, #9 Brayden Stortz, and #15 Matt Gillard. Stortz gave one of his most impressive performances on the season today, being a constant threat in the offensive zone by pressuring the Falcons defence with excellent forechecking.

Goaltenders for this afternoon’s contest were #1 Marcus Hlywka for the Falcons and #1 Doug McDermott for the Tigers. While both netminders made some fine saves on the day, one of the best came from McDermott who stopped a partial breakaway chance late in the first which seemed to spark the Tigers heading to the first intermission.

Welland’s power-play clicked for two goals on four chances, while allowing two short-handed tallies on the day. The Falcons failed to capitalize on either powerplay opportunity they were given.

The Tigers will now face a stiff challenge in battling the Brampton Battalion in a home-and-home series on Wednesday and Saturday of the upcoming week.

In what was a very entertaining contest, the Welland Harpwood Trophies Tigers defeated the St. Catharines Falcons in their season home-opener by a score of 4-2 this morning.

Strong goaltending and defence were on display from both teams and it was not until the 3:43 mark of the second period that the first goal of the game was scored, when St. Catharines was able to finally put one past the Welland goaltender.

The turning point in the game came in the second period when Welland was a man short and was able to produce two short-handed markers, only 10 seconds apart. #7 Ryan Miotto scored the first regular season goal for the Tigers at 7:03, while #4 Nicholas Villella followed up at 7:13 to put the Tigers ahead 2-1. The Tigers responded again with 3:39 remaining in the second to take a 3-1 lead going into the third period.

A solid defensive effort by all Tigers kept the score at 3-1 until late in the third period. #3 Konnor Luciani was a standout defensively for the Tigers, breaking up two separate 2-on- 1 chances and blocking several shots during the game. All his Tiger teammates followed his example in support of their goaltender throughout the game by also blocking shots and keeping the Falcons chances mostly to the perimeter. One defensive lapse, with only 2:54 remaining, allowed the Falcons to close the deficit to 3-2, as the St. Catharines forward tapped in the puck that was lying in the crease, beside the prone Welland netminder who had made the original stop, but was defenseless to stop the rebound from going in. Welland rounded out the scoring on the power-play with only 0.8 seconds remaining on the clock, as #8 Nick Volpatti, during a scramble in front of the St. Catharines net, was able to get the goal that sealed the victory for the Tigers.

The next action for the Tigers is tomorrow with a road contest in Oakville, followed by another away game in Halton next Saturday, before they face off against Burlington next Sunday once again at home.