Captain Cam comes through
It took three tries, but Cameron Lowe finally got the job done.
The 20-year-old captain of the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons netted the winner as the Falcons rallied to defeat the Hamilton Kilty B’s 6-5 in overtime Friday in a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League game in St. Catharines.
Lowe fired the winner at 5:54 of the extra period just seconds after ringing a shot off the post and then having Hamilton netminder Avery Alves stop him from in close before he followed up on his own rebound and beat Alves.
“I just keep telling myself I’m getting the chances, so I’m doing something right,” Lowe said. “Just bear down, the next one’s going to go in. So just stay positive to myself and tell myself that I’m going to get the next one.”
Lowe’s goal capped an impressive rally from a 4-1 deficit.
“Yeah, we went down early, but there was no quit on the team,” Lowe said. “Everybody was pushing on the bench and we knew we weren’t out of it. All it takes is one shot to get the boys going and we scored the late one in the second period to go down two going in the third, so that was a big momentum booster.”
Falcons president of hockey operations and head coach Tyler Bielby was impressed with the comeback.
“A little bit of a strange game because I didn’t hate our effort,” he said. “I thought, even when it was 4-1, I wanted to be better, but I wasn’t upset with the way we were working. We just made a couple mistakes and they capitalized. We hadn’t capitalized on ours, but we believe in this group.”
Down 4-1, Marcus Harris gave the Falcons some life with a power-play goal late in the second. That momentum carried over to the third where Dallys Hibbert and Brendan Grenville scored just 20 seconds apart to tie the score at 4-4. Hamilton then went back up halfway through the period but the Falcons once again answered, this time on a goal by newcomer Juan Agromayor to tie the game at 5-5.
“We told them between second and third, we believe in you, and you believe in yourselves. You’re winning tonight’s hockey game,” Bielby said. “That’s a big goal for us at the end of the second period to make it 4-2 instead of 4-1. And they did, they believed in themselves. They could have packed it in when we got down 5-4 after coming back, they didn’t.
“Proud of the group tonight. It’s a good team win, we learned from this and we know that we’re never out. We might be down but we’re never out.”
Midget call-up Kieran Raynor had an impressive game, assisting on Lowe’s winner and also creating several good offensive opportunities.
“We have a lot of trust in Mr. Raynor,” Bielby said. “He’s being talked about as a top OHL draft pick for a reason. I mean, this kid can play, he’s got great feet, gets in on the forecheck. He was a little hard on himself. He missed a couple of tap-in goals, but I talked to him between periods and said it’s an imperfect game. It’s how you get rid of it. It’s how you throw it off and just be ready to play next shift. Sure enough, he’s on the ice when we roll.”
The win improves the Falcons record to 9-3, good enough to lead the Eastern Conference by two points over the Caledonia Corvairs. The Corvairs own two games in hand.
Falcon facts: Thomas Dimoulas, Matt Fries, Luca Santostefano, Ally Mostafaie and Hayden Jeffery were scratched for the Falcons. Jeffery dressed as back up to Charlie Robertson Friday for the Niagara IceDogs . . . Adrian Rebelo, Jackson Pepin, Evan Krell, Trent Shaw, Kyle Henneberry, Timoteo Rossi, Jacob Uhm, Darie Visan and Gabriel Longo did not dress for the Kilty B’s.
Falcons 6 Kilty B’s 5 OT
Falcons captain Cam Lowe with the OT winner.
St. Catharines Falcons: Treyson Dewar (9); Juan Agromayor (4); Cameron Lowe (4); Marcus Harris (2); Dallys Hibbert (2); Brendan Grenville (2).
Hamilton Kilty B’s: Ryan Woodburn (4); Quinten Lisle (4); Gianmarco Caringi (4); Nicholas Kiss (3); Ethan Girard (2);
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Avery Alves (49), by Hamilton on Jacob Ceranic (27); Power plays: St. Catharines 1/4, Hamilton 2/3; Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 6, Hamilton 8.
Attendance: 357.
Up next: The Falcons head to Pelham Sunday at 2:45 p.m. and return home to face the Panthers again next Friday at 7 p.m.
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