Boria hitting his stride
Jonah Boria is playing his best hockey as crunch time approaches for the St. Catharines Falcons.
With the playoffs less than a month away and the Falcons looking to find overall consistency in their game heading into the post-season, Boria has taken his game to the next level.
The 19-year-old Grimsby native scored for the third straight game as the Falcons edged the Fort Erie Meteors 3-2 in a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference game Tuesday night at the Leisureplex.
“I actually got in his ear on the bench and told him it’s a pleasure to watch you play hockey right now and just to keep it up,” Falcons coach Tyler Bielby said. “He’s putting in the work of the ice. He’s studying a lot of film and he’s in the gym.
“If people (scouts) haven’t come out to watch him yet for next year or two years from now, they need to. He’s elite, not just in this league, but in a lot of leagues.”
Boria is third in team scoring with 11 goals and 33 points in 35 games and Bielby pretty much gives Boria carte blanche to rush the puck as he sees fit.
“When you can recover in three strides, you let him go,” Bielby said. “He never stays down there too long. He does a good job of retreating and getting back and he does that so effortlessly.
“We want to engage our defenceman as much as possible.”
Boria has recently scored two overtime winners, both on classic end-to-end rushes.
“I’m not too worried about the goals,” Boria said. “If I can chip in offensively and help the team win, I will.”
Boria appreciates the faith shown in him by the coaching staff.
“It’s nice that Ty believes in me and trusts me and it’s good when you trust yourself as well,” he said.
The Falcons, coming off a huge overtime win Monday versus the league-leading Hamilton Kilty B’s, addressed the importance of not having a letdown against a pesky Fort Erie squad.
“We talked about keeping the momentum going and playing with purpose and just pride and caring what the outcome is and caring how it’s perceived how you work,” Bielby said. “If you want to be winners you can’t go and win a big game like that and then lay an egg.”
Josh Johnson got the start in net for the Falcons and picked up the win.
“Kudos to Josh. A couple got by him in the first but he shut the door for us and made a big save for us in the second period and that turned out to be the difference in a 3-2 game,” Bielby said. “This team does really well when we take pride in defence and again tonight we only let in two goals, and as a result we win.”
The Meteors were coming off a pair of wins on the weekend, although assistant coach Anthony Passero felt the team played better in a losing effort than in the victories.
“We have some work to do, we’ll always have work to do until we start the playoffs, but that’s our best effort since we played them last time (2-0 Fort Erie win),” he said. “We’ve won since then but that was the best effort since that win.”
Passero would love to see the Meteors pay attention to their own end, much like the Falcons.
“We kind of just want to mirror what they do. They play so well defensively and play for 60 minutes and we haven’t put together a 60-minute effort in a while,” he said. “At the end of the day, if our power play (0-for-6) scores a goal, I don’t see us losing that hockey game.”
Metscellaneous: Former Golden Horseshoe coaches Terry Masterson and Chris Johnstone were in attendance. Masterson’s grandson, Rylan Masterson, is a member of the Meteors.
STATS PACK
St. Catharines defenceman Jonah Boria.
Falcons 3 Meteors 2
Fort Erie Meteors: Kyle Adamo (7); Kevin Gould (2).
St. Catharines Falcons: Boria (11); Mason Howard (6); Jordan Schanbacher (5).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Josh Johnson (23), by St. Catharines on Duncan Nichols-Delay (23); Power plays; Fort Erie 0/6, St. Catharines 0/4; Penalty minutes: Fort Erie10, St. Catharines 14.
Up next: The Falcons host Pelham Friday while the Meteors host the Panthers Saturday.
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