RedHawks double Falcons
Tyler Bielby isn’t going to lose any sleep over a 6-3 loss by the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons to the Cambridge RedHawks Friday night at the Seymour-Hanna Sports Complex.
The president of hockey operations and head coach of the Falcons is as competitive as they come, but is also is a realist and well aware of the ups and downs of a long season.
“We just won 12 or 13 hockey games in a row so we just want to throw this one away and be ready for Welland on Sunday,” Bielby said. “We’re getting guys kicked out of the games for, at the end of the day, reasons they should still be in the game. We’re getting short-handed, our guys are grinding it out, but we’re not going to win every game with nine forwards on the bench for three quarters of a game.”
The Falcons, coming off a 4-2 win at Hamilton Thursday, were without captain Cam Lowe, speedy Matt Fries and defencemen Luke Gualtieri and Dallys Hibbert.
Bielby said the injuries are giving others an opportunity to step up.
“It’s just next man up,” he said. “But yeah, you take some of the big guys out of your lineup, we now have some first-year junior hockey players that are learning how to play night in and night out. And we have nothing but faith and belief in them. So that’s why I said, throw it off our back, we had a nice win last night on the road with that adversity.
“We gave one up tonight, but there’s not a player in that dressing room we don’t believe in to help us through this stretch while we deal with some injuries. But it’s a moot point, they should have been ready to win tonight’s hockey game.”
The loss spoiled the home debut for winger Trent Gates.
The 17-year-old Burlington native was with the Falcons in training camp before cracking the lineup with the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League.
Gates, who played 12 games with the Attack where he garnered two assists, collected a goal Friday and had several other good chances to score.
“Poise, high hockey IQ, but most importantly he had a back-check tonight where he picked up the trailer and it was a big difference,” Bielby said when asked what Gates will bring to the team. “This kid’s got some skill, but it was nice to see that in Owen Sound they made sure they teach him how to play on the other side of the puck. We can see that a bit tonight. He’s going to help us a lot, especially as we get healthy. It’s just adds way more depth.”
Bielby loves Gates’ skill set.
“I mean, this kid had 80 assists, I believe, last year. He’s got eyes in the back of his head,” Bielby said. “The boys were really happy to have him, and on top of that, he’s a great kid.”
Gates was happy to get the monkey off his back and score.
“It felt good. Yesterday I had a bunch of chances that I just couldn’t bury on and it kind of stuck with me last night,” he said. “Today it felt good to get that weight off my shoulders. Get that first goal of the books, and go from there.”
Gates is looking forward to more playing time.
“I just wasn’t playing. I felt like after the pre-season I had here with Tyler, I talked a little bit with him and he just said anytime you can come back down, have fun, play hockey again, play good hockey and hopefully win the Sutherland Cup.
“I think it’s going to help me a lot this year. Like I did tonight, I played a bunch of minutes. I feel like just being able to go out every night and play 20 minutes, even these guys, they’re still good physical players. So it’ll get me used to playing against those guys, playing against the top lines in these leagues. I think that will help me go on for my future.”
The loss drops the Falcons’ record to 21-6-0-1. They trail the Ayr Centennials by one point for first place in the Eastern Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Ally Mostafaie, Juan Agromayor, Brendan Grenville and Nathan Duplessis scored Thursday in a 4-2 win at Hamilton.
Jacob Ceranic made 28 saves in net for the win.
Falcon facts: Luke Gualtieri, Kaleb Lyttleton, Matt Fries, Dallys Hibbert and Gabriel Longo were scratched for the Falcons.
STATS PACK
RedHawks 6 Falcons 3
Falcons forward Trent Gates.
St. Catharines Falcons: Brendan Grenville (9); Lachlan Sucher (3); Trent Gates (1).
Cambridge RedHawks: Will Bray 2 (6,7); Weston Cameron (8); Josh Kaufman (7); Owen Yagar (6); Ryder Simpson (3).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Lennart Neisse (39), by Cambridge on Hayden Jeffery (29); Power plays: St. Catharines 1/4, Cambridge 1/3; Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 14; Cambridge 28.
Attendance: 423.
Up next: The Falcons head to Welland Sunday at 7 p.m. and Fort Erie Wednesday at 11 a.m. before returning back home next Friday to face Brantford.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 6,500 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
