Another OT triumph for Canucks
The Niagara Falls Canucks’ revolving door of overtime heroes churned out Ryan Donovan Friday night.
The 19-year-old Niagara Falls native scored 10:35 in overtime at the Gale Centre to give the Canucks a 6-5 victory in Game 5 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference final series. Niagara Falls now leads the series 3-2 thanks to three overtime victories in the series.
For the 6-foot-1 190 pound Donovan, it was the first overtime goal of his junior hockey career.
“I don’t remember too much about my last one, but it was back when I was playing triple A,” he said, of his second goal of the playoffs. “I definitely remember the feeling.”
This one will be even more memorable considering it capped an impressive comeback for the Canucks.
“Coming back from being down four goals and then going down by one again and tying it up, the boys all bought in and realized the situation we were in,” Donovan said. “It’s just one more game to win the series and move on.”
Trust is a big part of the Canucks’ success.
“We all know what each other can do and what we should be doing and everyone sticks to their roles,” he said. “We don’t have anyone complaining on the bench and everybody’s happy. We’re one big family.”
Canucks head coach Frank Pietrangelo described the victory as a character win.
“We were down 4-0 and we lost some guys during the game,” he said. “That’s why we are champions.”
Winning at all levels is something many of the Canucks have made a habit of doing.
“And my coaching staff as well,” Pietrangelo said. “We have all won before and we are trying to bring that culture to our team. It has been that kind of year for us.”
The Canucks were in a familiar position against the Falcons Friday night.
“We were down 4-0 to them in their building early in the year and we lost 6-5, but we thought if we had five more minutes we would have won that game,” Pietrangelo said. “Maybe that was part of it tonight.”
It was a loss that hurt for Falcons coach Frank Girhiny and his squad.
“It stings terribly after building a 4-0 lead, but it was in the first period and they are a good hockey team.”
What stung the most was how the Falcons lost the game.
“The bottom line is we had a game plan and we just threw it out the door in the second period,” Girhiny said. “We started trying to knife through guys and our success against those guys comes from working behind their D.
“We never did that at all in the second period and we tried to do things individually, not as a cohesive unit and they capitalized.”
Girhiny describes Niagara Falls as a veteran team that knows how to win.
“Our guys are young and don’t understand, but they (Niagara Falls) have won RBC Cups and Ontario championships in minor hockey and they know how to do it,” he said. “Our guys have to learn to buy in for 60 minutes, not 20 or 40. Once we do that, we will be successful.”
Even with that, the Falcons had several good chances to win the game in the extra period.
“We had five or six golden chances to score in overtime and didn’t score and they scored on their chance,” Girhiny said.
The Canucks got off to a terribly slow start in the first period and it took them 16 minutes before they got their first shot on goal. By then, the Falcons had built a 3-0 lead on goals by Noah Solinger, Jacob Roach and Ethan Sims. Shots on goal in the period favoured St. Catharines 12-5.
The Falcons pushed the lead to 4-0 2:30 into the second period on a goal by Xavier Drummond. The tally seemed to wake Niagara Falls up and the Canucks played much better after that. Goals by Andrew Bruno and Nicholas Prestia cut the lead to 4-2 after two periods. Niagara Falls outshot St. Catharines 10-8 in the frame.
After killing a penalty to start the third period, Niagara Falls tied the game up by the 4:43 mark of the third period when Ryan Smith and David D’Agostino both beat Falcons goalie Noah Battaglia short side. St. Catharines regained the lead with 4:30 left the game when Tanner Brown scored on a screened shot from the point. The lead lasted 1:22 until Justin Randhawa added another goal on the short side. Shots on goal in the period were 8-8.
“He had two short-side goals the other night too, but he’s a battler and I expect he will come back and play well Sunday night as will the rest of the team,” Girhiny said.
Smith was assessed a head check penalty early in overtime and the Falcons had two excellent but unsuccessful chances to end the game. Canucks goalie Zack Moore made an excellent stop on Roach shortly afterwards. St. Catharines continued to press and Moore was forced to stop Mike Masotti on a breakaway. Battaglia then did his part to keep the game going by denying Bruno on a partial breakaway. Donovan then won it for Niagara Falls by banging home a rebound.
STATS PACK
Canucks 6 Falcons 5 (OT)
BPSN Star of the Game: Niagara Falls’ Ryan Donovan with the overtime winner..
For the Niagara Falls Canucks: Andrew Bruno (5); Nicholas Prestia (6); Ryan Smith (2); David D’Agostino (9); Justin Randhawa (5); Donovan (2).
For the St. Catharines Falcons: Noah Solinger (5); Jacob Roach (15); Ethan Sims (2); Xavier Drummond (15); Tanner Brown (1).
Game stats: Shots on goal: by Niagara Falls on Noah Battaglia 28, by St. Catharines on Zach Moore 32. Power plays: Niagara Falls 0-5, St. Catharines 2-7. Penalty minutes: Niagara Falls 26, St. Catharines 12.
Up next: Game 6 of the series goes Sunday at 7 p.m. at Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines.
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