Weekend junior hockey roundup: IceDogs continue to struggle; Junior B results; Junior C playoffs
The Niagara IceDogs are officially in a slump.
The IceDogs dropped a pair of games on the weekend in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury and have now lost four straight, their longest losing streak of the season.
The IceDogs, 32-14-7-2, still lead the Central Division of the Ontario Hockey League, but only by two points over the Wolves.
Niagara dropped a 3-2 decision at Sudbury Sunday afternoon, falling behind 3-1 before a late rally fell short.
The IceDogs normally potent power play came up empty in five opportunities while the Wolves scored twice in eight chances with the man advantage.
Shane Bulitka, Jack Thompson and Blake Murray scored for the Wolves.
Ben Jones and Akil Thomas scored for the IceDogs.
Buffalo Sabres prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves in goal for Sudbury and was named the game’s No. 1 star.
Stephen Dhillon kicked out 41 shots in goal for the IceDogs.
Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie, the IceDogs fell behind 7-2 early in the third before reeling off four goals in just under eight minutes to make things interesting. They ended up losing 7-6.
Jones, Jason Robertson and Jack Studnicka had two goals each for Niagara while Kirill Maksimov chipped in with three assists.
Keeghan Howdeshell paced the Greyhounds with a pair of goals while singles went to Morgan Frost, Zack Tritt, Cole MacKay, Jaromir Pytlik and Barrett Hayton.
Dhillon started in goal and permitted four goals on 15 shots before being replaced by Jake McGrath who made 17 saves on 20 shots.
The IceDogs are in Erie Saturday and home to the Wolves Sunday at 2 p.m.
JUNIOR B
Canucks 4 Panthers 1
The Niagara Falls Canucks moved into first place with a 4-1 win at Pelham Sunday afternoon.
Rookie Owen Holmes paced the winners with a pair of goals while Patrick McCabe and Matthew Riva added singles.
Matt Ruigrok replied for the Panthers.
The Canucks, 36-6-0-1, lead the St. Catharines Falcons by one point for first place. The Falcons own a game in hand.
Kilty B’s 4 Junior Canadians 1
The Hamilton Kilty B’s handed the Welland Junior Canadians their 15th straight defeat at Welland Sunday night.
T.J. Hughes paced Hamilton with a pair of goals while Anthony Pinelli and Cullen Ferguson, into an empty net, added singles.
Kellan Rosenbaum replied for Welland, which dropped to 8-31-0-4.
Kilty B’s 4 Falcons 3
The Kilty B’s jumped out to leads of 2-0 and 4-1 and then held off a late rally by the visiting Falcons Saturday in Hamilton.
Mark Duarte, Holden Rogers, Marc Shannon and Marino Moro scored for the winner.
Jacob Roach, Jacob Kelly and Xavier Drummond replied for the Falcons.
Marino Costantini made 41 saves in net for Hamilton.
Panthers 2 Meteors 1
Adam Scholz and Brendan Charlton scored two minutes apart in the third period to give the visiting Panthers a win at Fort Erie Saturday.
Brannon Butler had the lone Fort Erie goal.
This week
Monday: Lockport at Hamilton, 7 p.m.
Tuesday: Lockport at Pelham, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Fort Erie at Lockport, 7 p.m.
Thursday: St. Catharines at Thorold, 7:07 p.m.
Friday: Thorold at St. Catharines, 7 p.m.; Fort Erie at Niagara Falls, 7 p.m.; Hamilton at Pelham, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: Welland at Fort Erie, 7:15 p.m.
Sunday: Pelham at Welland, 7:05 p.m.
JUNIOR C
The Niagara Riverhawks split a pair of weekend games with the Hamilton Huskies and now lead their best-of-seven Provincial Junior Hockey League quarter-final series 2-1.
On Saturday night at the Gale Centre, the Riverhawks’ Karl Lavoie scored with just four seconds remaining in the first period to take a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play, but the Huskies responded with the tying goal just 40 seconds into the second period on a goal by Patrick Vulgan.
Dante Massi scored what would be the game winner at the 6:07 mark of the third as the Riverhawks were able to hang on for the 2-1 victory.
Both teams fired 37 shots on net with Matt Boere again having a strong game in the Riverhawk net making 36 saves in the win.
On Sunday night in Hamilton, the Huskies won 5-4 in overtime as Connor Noonan redirected a pass into the net at the 3:36.
The Riverhawks opened the scoring when Jake Orr scored at 10:19 of the opening frame but Hamilton responded four minutes later as the teams skated into the first intermission tied at 1-1.
Hamilton’s Scott McLaren scored on the power play to give Hamilton a 2-1 lead midway through the period. Josh Urbshott tied the game for the RiverHawks at 14:48 but Hamilton took a 3-2 lead with McLaren’s second of the game as they took a 3-2 lead after two periods.
Josh Urbshott
Danny Attridge scored for Hamilton at the 2:13 mark of the third period to extend the Huskie lead to 4-2.
The Riverhawks kept pressuring and Jacob Saddler scored on the power play at 13:51 to bring the Riverhawks within one. The Huskies took a late penalty and the Riverhawks took full advantage as Urbshott scored his second of the game with two minutes to play to tie the game at 4-4.
“I like how we battled back to tie it up but we just came up short in OT. We knew it was going to be close series coming into it. We just have to keep battling and competing,” Riverhawks coach Tim Barath said.
The Riverhawks outshot Hamilton 55-46 with Riverhawks’ Matt Boere making 41 saves in the loss. Jake Flemming made 51 saves for the win for Hamilton.
The series resumes Tuesday night at the Gale Centre for game 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Game 5 is Thursday back in Dundas.
In the other quarter-final series, Hagersville swept Port Dover 4-0. Glanbrook leads Hespeler 2-0 and Grimsby leads Dunnville 2-0.
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