Canucks still alive versus Siskins
The Niagara Falls Canucks will live to fight another day thanks to a 6-4 victory over the visiting Waterloo Siskins Friday night at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls.
The Canucks now trail Waterloo 3-2 in the best-of-seven Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Sutherland Cup semifinal series.
For 21-year-old St. Catharines native Patrick McCabe, he will take any victory that prolongs the end of his junior hockey career.
“We were lucky to come back here,” the 6-foot-4, 225-pound forward said. “We lost the first three games, but we have enough confidence in our guys to come back and finish it off.”
McCabe has been having a great Sutherland Cup semifinal series with five goals and two assists, including a goal Friday night. He has also spent a lot of time in the penalty box — both justified and unjustified — but he took pains not to take any penalties Friday night. He was hacked and cross-checked after the whistle and didn’t retaliate. He even drew a penalty that gave the Canucks a two-man advantage that they scored upon.
“I know we can’t take penalties against these guys because they have a good power play and I have to go out there and do my thing,” he said. “I have to play on the line and not go over it.
“If I have to take a couple punches to the head, I’ve got to do what I have to do for the boys.”
Given his prodigious penalty totals — he had 223 penalty minutes in the regular season and another 112 in the playoffs — McCabe is on the radar of every ref in the province. Sometimes it takes more than one offence on him before a penalty is called.
“You have to stick with it,” he said. “They see it and if they want make the calls, they make the calls. You have to bite the bullet and keep playing for your team.”
McCabe relishes his role as Public Enemy No. 1 to opposition players and fans alike.
“It’s a hard role to play and not a lot of guys can do it and I feel like I do it pretty good,” he said. “It’s just the way I play and you have to get under their skin. It helps me get points, it helps me use my size and it’s what I have to do out there.”
McCabe loves antagonizing the other team’s fans and did that again Friday, waving to the Waterloo fans in attendance.
“We have a lot of atmosphere in our rink and a lot of fans give it to us on the ice and it’s not bad to give it back once in a while.”
Niagara Falls head coach Frank Pietrangelo described Friday’s victory as a nice win.
“It was a hard-fought win and every game has been the same,” he said.
Pietrangelo agreed a key part of the win was his team turning the other cheek.
“Discipline is a big part of it and we have been punished early in the series for it,” he said. “Tonight we were better and we need to get better yet, but it seemed like the shoe was on the other foot tonight.
“It was kind of nice being on the other side, but we have to continue doing it.”
Pietrangelo knows that won’t be easy.
“These guys are teenagers, they want to win and they are very competitive,” he said. “Sometimes, their emotions get the best of them and we understand that.”
Waterloo head coach Todd Hoffman declined to comment after the game.
The Siskins were missing No. 1 goalie Matt Onuska for the game because of an injury. He has a 15-3 record with 2.55 goals against average and .915 save percentage in the playoffs. Backup Machus Turner turned in a decent performance Friday other than a bad clearing attempt that led to a goal.
Niagara Falls outshot Waterloo 11-9 in the first period according to the score clock, but at least three saves by Canucks goalie Zack Moore weren’t noticed by the person manning the shot clock. Niagara Falls outplayed Waterloo five-on-five in the period but the problem was the Canucks spent much of the period killing penalties and the period ended scoreless.
Things changed in that regard in the second period. After Ryan Donovan scored after a bad clearing pass by the Waterloo goalie, the Siskins’ Owen Lane took a penalty after the whistle penalty on Dillon Hill and then Niagara Falls was given a 0:51 two-man advantage when Patrick McCabe drew a penalty in front of the net. McCabe took one hit that wasn’t called but the refs called the second one. Niagara Falls took advantage when Ben Evans banged in a one-timer in the slot.
The two-goal lead lasted only 1:19 as Dominick DiPonio scored on a two-on-one rush. One minute and eight seconds later, Niagara Falls regained the two-goal bulge on a shorthanded goal by Justin Randhawa. Again, the two-goal lead was short-lived as Waterloo’s Brett Schaefer snapped a wrist shot through a partial screen.
After failing to score on a 1:36 two-man advantage late in the period, set up by another bad Siskins’ penalty after the whistle, Patrick McCabe gave the Canucks a 4-2 lead when he converted a nice feed from Andrew Bruno with 21 seconds left in the period.
Shots on goal in the second period were even at 13-13.
Niagara Falls did a great job keeping its two-goal lead for the first nine minutes of the third period and was helped when Alex Lycett’s shot rocketed off the post and into the netting with 11 minutes left in the period.
But it too wouldn’t last. Waterloo’s Matthew Prucha scored with 10:11 left in the game to cut the lead to 4-3. Niagara Falls went up 5-3 with 8:47 left in the game when Matthew Riva blasted in a shot after an ugly Waterloo turnover. Again the two-goal lead didn’t hold. With 6:38 left in regulation time, Waterloo’s Winston Cestnick beat Niagara Falls goalie Zach Moore five-hole on a partial breakaway.
Waterloo called a timeout and then pulled its goalie with 2:30 left in the game. The Siskins had some decent pressure before Dillon Hill scored into the empty net from the Niagara Falls’ blue line with 47 seconds left in the game.
STATS PACK
Canucks 6 Siskins 4
BPSN Star of the Game: Niagara Falls’ Matthew Riva with a goal and an assist.
For the Niagara Falls Canucks: Ryan Donovan (3); Ben Evans (11); Justin Randhawa (7); Patrick McCabe (10); Riva (4); Dillon Hill (8).
For the Waterloo Siskins: Dominick DiPonio (2); Brett Schaefer (6); Matthew Prucha (6); Winston Cestnick (10).
Game stats: Shots on goal: by Niagara Falls on Machus Turner 35; by Waterloo on Zack Moore 30. Power plays: Niagara Falls 1-8, Waterloo 0-6. Penalty minutes: Niagara Falls 12 , Waterloo 16.
Up next: Game 6 of the series is Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex in Waterloo followed by Game 7 (if necessary) Monday at 7 p.m. at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls.
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