Blackhawks, Falcons earn overtime wins
In the blink of an eye, Nathaniel Krbavac’s life changed dramatically one Canada Day.
The 20-year-old Binbrook resident was on a trip to Wasaga Beach with his buddies, celebrating his Grade 12 graduation from Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School.
The gang had gotten into the routine of going for a morning run and jumping over a ditch on their route when disaster struck.
“I went to go jump and there was dew on the ground. My feet slid out from under me and I went straight down,” Krbavac said. “I got up and it’s a bunch of hockey players so the mentality is to get up and keep running but as soon as I got off the grass and on to the pavement I looked down and saw my left ankle was popped out.”
Krbavac called his parents and by the next day had surgery on both ankles.
“I was just being a stupid kid,” he recalled. “I broke both ankles. I have pins in both of my legs and I can’t move as well.
“Everything changed. It changed my whole life.”
One of the biggest changes came on the football field where Krbavac was his school’s starting quarterback and had planned to play at the post-secondary level.
“My plan was to go to Laurier or Waterloo for football,” he said.
Krbavac worked hard to rehab the injuries and by September was back on the football field, ready to play one last season in Grade 12B.
“It was good to play but it wasn’t the same,” he said. “I was a duel-threat quarterback. I could throw but I couldn’t run (anymore) and basically did three-step drops the rest of my life.”
Krbavac kept hoping he could make the transition to a more traditional quarterback role.
“I thought I could make the change. Cam Newton was a guy I loved and I had to change to be like a Tom Brady or Drew Brees because they aren’t the most mobile guys but they could make it work.
“I tried to and everything went downhill.”
With his high school football career over, Krbavac, who grew up playing hockey and lacrosse as well as football and was enrolled at Brock University, thought about lacing up his skates again.
He had played at the AA level in Stoney Creek but gave it up to concentrate on football.
He made a quick call to former Thorold Blackhawks captain Austin Jensen, who put him in touch with Thorold coach/general manager Scott Barnes.
Krbavac, who is majoring in sports management, joined the Hawks last year but the season was wiped out by the COVID pandemic.
He made the team out of training camp last fall and has given the Blackhawks a big body (6-foot-3) on the wing.
“I missed being competitive. I’m a competitive guy — I have two brothers and a sister and we’re always competing for everything,” he said. “As I came back, I fell in love with hockey again. It’s having that camaraderie and being with the guys everyday.”
Barnes loves Krbavac leadership skills.
“He hadn’t played hockey in awhile but a really good team guy,” Barnes said. He’s a smart player — obviously the quarterback has to know the game plan — he’s really good that way. He’s dialled in and he’s a great leader for us and has those leadership qualities.
“He’s got size and he’s smart and tries to play a good defensive-type of game.”
Krbavac is enjoying his final season of junior hockey and made some great friends — he counts goaltender Noah Fortuna and captain Cooper Lobsinger among his closest buddies — which he said takes away some of the sting of the incident.
“I’m more happy here than I think I would be anywhere else,” he said.
Still, he can’t help but wonder what would have happened had he stayed healthy.
“It’s something that gets brought up every single day,” he said. “Everyone knows I was the guy who broke both ankles.
“It sucks because everything was ripped away because of a stupid decision I made.”
The Blackhawks edged the Niagara Falls Canucks 5-4 in a shootout in a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference game Monday night in Thorold.
Jack Sykes, Blake Hudson, Rian Mesonen and Nathan Kelly scored for the Hawks.
Matthew Riva had three goals and Michael Feldbloom one for the Canucks.
Riva scored in the shootout while Dylan Pergentile and Sam Tonelli, with the winner, replied for the Hawks.
Fortuna made 36 saves in net for Thorold.
Falcons 2 Kilty Bs 1 OT
Jonah Boria scored 4:28 into overtime to give the visiting St. Catharines Falcons a 2-1 victory over the Hamilton Kilty B’s.
It’s the second straight game the teams have gone to overtime after the B’s topped the Falcons 4-3 Friday in St. Catharines.
Olivier Desroches gave St. Catharines a 1-0 lead in the second period before former Falcon Dylan Abbamont need his 29th of the year for the Kilty B’s later in the period.
Andrew MacLean picked up the win in net for the Falcons while Gage Stewart took the loss.
“Putting together a full 60-minute effort was the difference tonight,” Falcons coach Tyler Bielby said. “Thought from the time the puck dropped, to the time Boria got the winner, we were really dedicated to playing with purpose. The 20 shots against is a testament to how we played off the puck.
“Was a great team win.”
The Falcons are back in action Tuesday in Fort Erie at 7:30 p.m.
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