Falcons getting healthy at right time
The return of Mitch Dmytrow to the lineup has been a welcome development for the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons hockey team.
The 18-year-old St. Catharines native had an assist Friday night in a 4-3 win over the visiting Pelham Panthers and now has six assists in three Golden Horseshoe Conference Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League games since returning from a broken leg he suffered Oct. 27.
“We forget he was an AP as a 16-year-old and he helped us win a Sutherland Cup. He got a suspension from fighting a 20-year-old and he is just a tough kid,” Falcons head coach Tyler Bielby said. “He spend time with us last year and I am so high on him. To go through what he went through this year was too bad but he is back at the right time and we are happy to have him.”
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound defenceman, who has three goals and 19 points in 16 games this season, injured his leg on a weird play. He tried to play the next game and made it worse.
“The bone just must have been so weak. It was slightly fractured and I tried to play through it the next game and it just broke on a weird turn.”
The Saint Francis graduate realized right away he was going to miss a substantial amount of time.
“I knew it was going to be awhile but I wanted to get back for these boys and I did a lot every day: physio and chiro.”
It was difficult to be on the sidelines knowing he could help his team on the ice.
“It was definitely tough but I made the most of it at Athlete Farm Niagara. I was there almost every day pushing myself upper-body wise and then working on my legs once I was able to start walking.”
Viewing games gave him a new perspective on the sport.
“I watched the space on the ice and what I could do in that space. It helped a lot.”
He returned to the lineup Feb 9 against Port Colborne and had three assists.
“It was great. It was a long wait to get back in there. These guys have a lot of trust in me and I was logging top minutes which was great.”
The Falcons needed him to play well against the Panthers Friday.
Pelham head coach Zac Rinaldo was happy with how his team played except for how it started.
“The first 10 minutes I thought we started slow but we caught up to the game and I thought that we finished strong. I thought we did the right things and played a detail-oriented game and it was that one bounce that went in and the goalie knocked the net off. Those are the stingers for me and the ones that hurt the hardest.”
With 4:11 left in the game, a puck trickled behind Falcons goalie Cal Gardner. He fell backwards into the net and knocked it off its moorings seconds before a Pelham played tapped the puck in the net. Twenty-four seconds later, Matthew Hlacar scored for St. Catharines to make it 4-2.
Pelham did not play like a team that has 13 wins and is mired in a six-game losing streak.
“We practise extremely, extremely hard and we pay attention to every little detail. We do lots of video and they are also a very close personal team,” Rinaldo said. “They are together every day and they love each other.”
After Friday’s game, the players talked about how close the team is to success.
“They feel that we are building something and something is bubbling,” he said. “It is just a matter of time before we get that first win. Obviously we are on a losing streak and that first win to break a losing streak is the hardest. Once we get past this hump, I am really excited for what’s to come.”
Pelham’s play impressed Bielby.
“A lot of credit to Zac Rinaldo over there for what he is doing with those boys. Pelham showed the league at the deadline that they don’t want to be that team. They made some moves, they brought in some nice players and they are playing like a team,” he said. “They never took a shift off, they competed all night and made us earn that win.”
He was mostly OK with how his team played Friday.
“I thought we were really good at standing in shooting lanes and we blocked a lot of shots. The effort wasn’t my concern today but we took untimely penalties. We were playing with a lead all night but we were gripping our sticks a little too tight because we were giving up power plays and they had a good power play tonight. We have to clean up our penalty kill and get ready to go tomorrow.”
Bielby likes how his team is trending as the regular season winds down.
“We are getting healthier and that is now nine in a row for us. At this time of year to put nine wins together in a row I am pretty happy from a coaching perspective. It’s about keeping our foot on the gas during these dog days of the season,” he said. “We have six games left now and we’ve got to make sure we go every night.”
STATS PACK
Falcons 4 Panthers 3
St. Catharines’ Mitch Dmytrow with a strong defensive game and an assist.
St. Catharines Falcons: Grayson Gare (12); Dylan Pergentile (20); Marcus Harris (5); Matthew Hlacar (13).
Pelham Panthers: Aiden Cupelli (20); Noah Aboflan (5); Brendan Grenville (11).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Patrick Sutherland 13-15-7=35, by Pelham on Cal Gardner 10-17-9=36; Power plays: St. Catharines 1-3, Pelham 2-5; Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 10, Pelham 8.
Attendance: 355.
Up next: The Falcons are in Fort Erie Saturday at 7 p.m. and Caledonia Monday at 7:30 p.m. Pelham hosts Fort Erie Sunday at 2:45 p.m. and Hamilton Monday at 1:30 p.m.
