Canucks use power plays to edge Falcons
Fans eagerly anticipating the latest battle in the longstanding rivalry between the St. Catharines Falcons and Niagara Falls Canucks saw their enthusiasm for the game diminished by an endless parade of Falcons to the penalty box Friday night at the Jack Gatecliff Arena.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Canucks emerged with a 3-2 victory and a share of second place in the Golden Horseshoe Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Niagara Falls scored all three of its goals on the power play as it was given 11 power play opportunities, including a full two-minute five on three advantage and another two-man advantage that lasted 1:54. Before the game, a member of the Falcons management team who shall remain nameless predicted plenty of calls from refs Josh Wall and Darryl Wolfe. It turned out he definitely wasn’t crying Wolfe (pardon the bad pun).
After the game, St. Catharines Falcons head coach Tyler Bielby was so upset he could barely speak.
“Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. It was awful,” he said.
But for obvious reasons, he wouldn’t specify exactly what was terrible.
“I am not going to answer that question,” he said. “I am just going to tell you that tonight was an embarrassment, period. We needed to win that hockey game and we need to be better Sunday (for the rematch).
Bielby felt there was a lot to like about his team’s performance, despite the loss.
“I am happy with my boys but I am not happy with the game of hockey right now. It’s that simple.”
Bielby was most impressed with his team’s ability to deal with adversity.
“My team kept coming. My team kept getting put behind the eight ball,” he said. “They kept killing penalties, they kept blocking shots only to be put in the position to do the same thing over and over and over and over again when they were the better team on the ice tonight.”
Canucks head coach Frank Pietrangelo didn’t disagree with that assessment, at least for the first two periods.
“I thought for the first two periods we weren’t very good,” he said. “The third period we got some power plays and we scored on a couple. We had some opportunities in the second period as well but we didn’t execute.”
He attributed that lack of execution to having so many new players on his team.
“We have a lot of new faces here and we have changed things around and it will take some time for us to gel but we are obviously happy with the victory.”
Not surprisingly, Pietrangelo also declined to comment about the officiating.
“I have nothing to say about the refereeing,” he said. “We had some power plays but we didn’t capitalize on them the way we should. We probably should have had a few more goals but we didn’t.”
Two of Niagara Falls’ newcomers, Carson Edwardson and Andrew Somerville, scored power-play goals in the win. Both were acquired from the Falcons.
“I am happy for them,” Pietrangelo said. “Obviously they played here for a couple of years, but they are Canucks now and it was great to see them contribute to the win.”
He’s hoping it will be the first of many.
“We are planning on this being a long journey for us and in order to do so, we have to do a lot of gelling.”
A win versus the Falcons is a great way to kickstart the rivalry.
“St. Catharines and Niagara Falls is a great rivalry and I am happy we got the win,” Pietrangelo said.
St. Catharines is also integrating several new bodies into the lineup, including Cail Cirillo. The 20-year-old Fort Erie native has been with St. Catharines Falcons for four games after playing his entire career with the Fort Erie Meteors.
“Cail Cirillo will be there standing at the end,” Bielby said. “He will be a big part of our success and we are so happy to have him.
“He plays with great poise, he had a great shot and he has been a great teammate so far.”
On Friday, he also demonstrated a prototypical 200-foot game.
“The back check he had in third period in particular,” Bielby said. “That is what hockey is all about.”
The 6-foot-1, 180-pound forward is happy to be in St. Catharines.
“It feels good,” he said. “It is a great group of guys and I am glad to be here. They have accepted me and has helped me out a lot here.”
It took him a game or two to feel comfortable.
“It was hard the first game, especially because it was against Fort Erie,” he said. “But I got into it.”
After playing his entire career with the Meteors, Cirillo is happy to be with a team that has higher aspirations.
“It is a bit different and I hope that I can contribute,” he said, while agreeing two-way play in his calling card. “I also feel I can provide some offence and throw a hit or two.
“I want to help the guys out and hopefully win something here.”
Cirllio is the son of former Niagara Falls Thunder and OHLer Ryan Cirillo, who also played the game the right way.
“He obviously played the game and knows a lot of thing and he has helped me out a lot along the way,” Cail said.
Niagara Falls improved to 26-8-2-2 with the win while St. Catharines fell to 27-10-2-0.
STATS PACK
Canucks 3 Falcons 2
BPSN Star of the Game: Canucks goalie Anthony Tremonte with 38 saves
For the St. Catharines Falcons: Thomas Lenart (18); Nick Volpatti (21).
For the Niagara Falls Canucks: Andrew Somerville (7); Carson Edwardson (25); Brodie Thoms (6).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Tremonte 18-14-8=40 by Niagara Falls on Blair Coffin 7-11-8=26. Power plays: St. Catharines 0-4, Niagara Falls 3-11. Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 32, Niagara Falls 12.
Attendance: 550.
Up next: The Falcons play Niagara Falls Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls.