Kevan Dowd
Special to The Lake Report
It was a week of mixed emotions for the Niagara Jr. A Predators with their last four games resulting in a pair of close losses and two forfeiture wins.
Starting with a 4-3 loss to the first-place Durham Roadrunners last Wednesday, the Predators’ Friday night game was cancelled due to COVID-19 cases among their opponents – the St. George Ravens – resulting in a win by forfeit for Niagara.
Two days later the Plattsville Lakers edged the Predators 4-3 in a shootout victory but with St. George still unable to return to the ice for their scheduled game on Tuesday, Niagara picked up an additional two points.
Despite not being played, the games record a final score of 3-0 for the Predators as the Greater Metro Hockey League assigns a goal per period for the “winning” team.
Predators’ owner and head coach Robert Turnbull said he was incredibly proud of his team’s performance last Wednesday, lamenting that league-leading Durham’s winning goal was a stroke of luck.
“It was an incredible game to coach, to watch, to see the players rise to a different level,” he said.
“They ended up scoring a fluke goal. Serio shot the puck from the corner, it hit three or four players, it never left the ice, went off a skate and into the net and we lose to them again by one goal. But it was a tremendous hockey game.”
Things were neck-and-neck for the full 60 minutes. Durham opened the scoring but Niagara’s Georgy Kholmovsky netted one at the 16:13 mark of the first period.
Scoring went back and forth through the second period with Niagara’s Jason Humphries putting his team out front five minutes in, but Durham answered back two minutes later. A power play goal from Reese Bisci reclaimed Niagara’s lead a little more than halfway through the period but it was only three minutes before Durham tied things back up.
Then Kevin Serio’s unassisted final goal for Durham with little more than six minutes to go would remain unchallenged earning his team a 4-3 victory.
“They threw it on net from the goal line, bounced it off the skate of our defenceman who had the guy out front and it just snuck by Morgan (Penwell)’s pad by a couple inches. Just really unlucky bounces,” said assistant coach Connor Shipton.
“They battled hard, we were right there with them and that makes two very close games against them.”
Turnbull and Shipton were less pleased with Sunday’s performance in Plattsville.
“It was a rough game for them. I don’t know what happened but the majority of the guys just didn’t have their best game,” said Shipton.
All three of Niagara’s goals came in the first seven minutes with tallies from Alexander Insulander at 1:33, Noah Caperchione at 5:43 and Reese Bisci at 6:47 with just one goal from their opponents in that time.
Plattsville’s Lucas Bast netted a goal at 12:59 for a one-goal difference going into the second period, where his team would tie things up after 15 minutes of play. No further goals were scored in regular time or during five extra minutes, with just a single, game-winning goal in the shootout by Plattsville for the 4-3 final.
Sunday was the fifth time Niagara played Plattsville this season and their first loss to the Lakers. While Turnbull credits Plattsville for playing a tremendous game, he thinks his team’s record with the Lakers may have played a role in the loss.
“I hate to say it but sometimes when you constantly beat a team, you don’t really come to work, you think it’s a given. Our transition game was poor, we turned over the puck a lot, we really didn’t play our positions the way we’re supposed to and we started cutting corners and it’s very difficult to get back.”
The two losses were balanced out by four points thanks to their forfeit wins over St George but neither Turnbull nor Shipton take pride in the outcomes.
“Everyone wanted to play, trust me,” said Turnbull, who also owns the Ravens and contacted the GMHL about positive COVID-19 cases among his players, requiring they quarantine for at least five days. “That wasn’t up to me, that’s a league policy and I don’t want to jeopardize any of our players' health.”
The losses drop the Ravens to fourth place and advance the Predators to third in the league’s southern division and also means neither team will face each other again in the regular season.
“It wasn’t about the points. We beat them the last two times. It was a huge disappointment. To be in third place is irrelevant when you get points like that. So nobody was happy and we wanted to play.”
Shipton said the disappointment extended beyond the coaching staff to the players as well.
“That’s kind of our number one rivals, so that’s the game a lot of the guys were looking forward to. So the only chance we see them again is playoffs, if it all works out.”
With just three games left in the regular season – all this weekend – Turnbull says this week’s practices will be focusing on preparing for the post-season.
“We have to get back to the way we can play. We have to play better. No matter who we play, we have to play better to move forward and I honestly believe you’ll see that. The players know themselves.”
The Predators play their final home game of the regular season this Friday, March 4, against the Tottenham Thunder at the Meridian Credit Union Arena. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.