Canucks, Falcons ready for battle
The best of the best are set to square off Friday when the Niagara Falls Canucks host the St. Catharines Falcons in Game 1 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference finals.
The Canucks and Falcons not only finished one-two atop the Golden Horseshoe regular season standings, but the long-time rivals also compiled the top two winning percentages in the entire GOJHL.
“I think it’s going to be a real good series,” Falcons coach/general manager Frank Girhiny said. “We’re real excited as a coaching staff, as an organization, and the players, to play against Niagara Falls.
“There’s a lot of side stories with players who played with each other and hang out with each other.”
Pietrangelo is also looking forward to the matchup.
“We’re anxious to start. Obviously playing St. Catharines makes it that much better,” Pietrangelo said.
Both teams have a tremendous amount of respect for each other.
“We know St. Catharines is a good hockey club,” Pietrangelo said. “They have a lot of experience. It’s been back and forth with us and them for first place all year.
“We know they have all the elements of a championship-type team. If we didn’t have that approach, we’d be making a tremendous mistake.”
Girhiny is well aware the Canucks will be a formidable opponent, particularly on the power play, where the Canucks are scoring at a ridiculous 44.68 per cent rate in the post-season.
“If you look at their top three forwards (Ben Evans, Mitch Mendonca, Justin Kyle) and (David) D’Agostino, more than half of their points come on the power play,” Girhiny said. “If that’s not a red flag for our hockey team to stay out of the box, then I don’t know what would be.
“They’re deadly, they’re potent. Having said that, we have the best penalty kill, so that’s going to be a good matchup.”
Pietrangelo feels his club is more than just five talented players who can score with the man advantage.
“Our power play has been good all year and really good in the playoffs. They are talented guys so are unselfish so that’s been a big part of it,” he said. “You can’t just rely on the power play. You penalty kill and five-on-five play has to be good. All aspects of your game have to be good in order to be successful in the playoffs. You need to be clicking on all cylinders.”
The Canucks swept their way to the finals with series wins over Lockport and Pelham while the Falcons swept the Welland Junior Canadians in the first round and eliminated the Hamilton Kilty B’s in six games in the semifinals.
Girhiny liked a lot of what he saw from his club versus Hamilton, especially their resiliency in bouncing back to take Game 6 4-0 after a crushing defeat in triple overtime in Game 5.
“In that type of series you get pushed. You bend, but you don’t break. That’s what it’s all about and we expected that from that team,” Girhiny said. “We welcomed that because it will get us really prepared and ready to go for Niagara Falls. We expect a lot of the same from Niagara Falls.”
Niagara Falls defeated St. Catharines in the season series 4-2, but two of those wins were the first two games of the season.
“From the first two games, our team is totally different,” Girhiny said.
Girhiny is looking to goaltender Noah Battaglia as being a difference-maker.
“For us, we’ve had good success with our goalies over the years and Noah Battaglia is locked in,” he said. “He is a different goalie even than he was a month ago. He’s been playing in a lot of games and he has gotten himself in a routine.
“We’re going to count on him to be a big part of us being successful against Niagara Falls.”
The winner of the series will advance to the Sutherland Cup semifinals versus the winners of the West and Midwest Divisions. The fourth team will be a wild card with the best winning percentage from the teams who did not qualify.
With an 8-0 mark so far, even if the Canucks were to lose in the finals, they would appear to have a strong chance to advance.
“You can’t count on that. It’s a crapshoot. Our focus is on another four-of-seven series and we’ll approach it the same way as the first two,” Pietrangelo said. “Obviously, it doesn’t matter how you get in, as long as you get in, but we’re not looking at it. You talk about it because it’s a part of this playoff system and every game is important. We’re 8-0 and that will help us but we’re focused on winning this series.”
Girhiny is taking the same approach.
“We need to win the series, end of story. We’re not looking to play safe for the wild card or anything like that. We just need to play it game to game.”
The Falcons may be without truculent winger Dakota Miskolczi, who is nursing a lower body injury, and will be a game-time decision Friday.
The Canucks, who are heading into their first conference final since 2011 and riding a 16-game winning streak, will be without their own super-pest, Pat McCabe, who still has three games remaining in his six-game suspension.
Game 2 is Sunday, March 31 at St. Catharines with Game 3 Tuesday, April 2 at Niagara Falls and Game 4 Wednesday, April 3 at St. Catharines. If necessary, Game 5 is Friday, April 5 at Niagara Falls, Game 6 Sunday, April at St. Catharines and Game 7 Monday, April 8 at Niagara Falls. All games are 7 p.m. starts.
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