Centennials jump on Falcons
The St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons missed a golden opportunity Friday night to take a stranglehold on first place in the Eastern Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
The Falcons dropped a 7-4 decision at home to the Ayr Centennials, just 24 hours following an impressive 5-2 win at Ayr.
St. Catharines lead the standings by five points over the Centennials. The Falcons have seven games remaining in the regular season, the Centennials eight.
Falcons president of hockey operations and head coach Tyler Bielby was calm and collected followed the loss.
“It’s a 3-1 series on the season against a team that’s right there for us,” Bielby said. “Discipline was a big deal to me. The difference tonight was in the second period. It’s two five-on-threes. We have guys who have got to be a little more determined to stay out of the box.”
Toss in an inconsistent effort and the Falcons will look back on one that got away.
“Our compete was off and on,” Bielby said. “It wasn’t consistent enough tonight and there’s probably something to do with being a little content with a win last night. That’s what I just reminded them of. You can’t get content. You can’t be satisfied with a weekend split.”
The Falcons fell behind 2-0 after 20 minutes when the Centennials scored a pair of goals just 41 seconds apart.
Ally Mostafaie got St. Catharines on the board early in the second before a steady parade to the penalty box interrupted the flow of the game.
“I mean you got the two best teams in the province and the penalty box is full,” Bielby lamented.
Brendan Grenville, who had a strong game for the Falcons with a pair of goals, admitted it was an irritating game in which to play.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Grenville said. “I just think we didn’t get the lucky bounces tonight. I know we could have tightened up our D-zone. It’s never a good sign to give up seven. Other than that, I liked our compete when we were down a bit. I know we’ve been able to come back recently, but tonight we just weren’t able to.
“I think they just came out giving it their all. They knew that if they had a chance of catching us, they had to win tonight. I know that they gave it a better effort than us tonight.”
Down 6-4 early in the third and heading to the power play, the Falcons appeared to have a good opportunity to get back in the game but captain Cam Lowe was called for a cross-checking penalty and the Centennials quickly capitalized to quell any hopes of a Falcons’ comeback.
The Falcons now have a full week off before hosting Caledon next Friday.
“We just stick with the process,” Bielby said, “It’s a journey, right? We’re 42 games in and we just keep focusing on ourselves. We want to be better off the puck. Tonight I didn’t think we competed very hard off the puck and that ended up being the result. We made some mental mistakes that ended up being the difference.
“There’s no panic. There’s one team out of 24 in the entire province that has more points than us right now. It’s about learning and making sure that they feel it. There’s no question that room feels it right now.”
Thursday in Ayr, Juan Agromayor had two goals while Mostafaie, Treyson Dewar and Trent Gates added singles.
Hayden Jeffery made 31 saves.
Falcon facts: Lachlan Sucher, Lucas Tuin, Matt Fries and Liam Fisher were scratched for the Falcons . . . The Falcons will host the Hamilton Kilty B’s Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. in a makeup game from Jan. 31 which was postponed due to the weather.
St. Catharines forward Brendan Grenville with two goals.
Centennials 7 Falcons 4
St. Catharines Falcons: Brendan Grenville 2 (14,15); Nathan Duplessis (23); Ally Mostafaie (20).
Ayr Centennials: Owen Ireton 2 (27,28); Daniel Berehowsky 2 (17,18); Ryan McKellar (16); Austin Keleher (15); Rocco Tavernese (1).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Kayden Newton (35), by Ayr on Hayden Jeffery (33); Power plays: St. Catharines 2/7, Ayr 3/5; Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 30, Ayr 24.
Attendance: 402.
Up next: The Falcons return home next Friday to face the Caledon Bombers.
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