Falcons look to rebound
Goaltender Hayden Jeffery is back for another season with the St. Catharines Falcons. The Falcons open the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League season Friday at home to Cambridge. Photo: BILL POTRECZ
The St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons continue to set the bar high.
The two-time Sutherland Cup champions are coming off two seasons of early playoff exits (for them) in the semifinals and president of hockey operations and head coach Tyler Bielby admitted that won’t cut it this year.
“There are teams in this league that would be happy with winning the first round and having an opportunity to win the second round. It just doesn’t sit well with us that we exited in the second round and we want to be ready to go this year,” Bielby said.
He feels striving for the top of the mountain is essential to being a consistent contender for a championship.
“When I came into the organization over a decade ago, which is the first year we won a Sutherland Cup under Frank Girhiny’s leadership, I learned that from Frank right away. This is an organization of excellence where the expectation is to be successful and to compete every year and that’s a part of our recruiting and the conversations.”
Part of the Falcons formula, Bielby said, is to seek out high character individuals.
“Zack (general manager Zack Shipper) and the team worked really hard to make sure we had a lot of skill and experience in the lineup, but at its core, character was really important,” Bielby said. “So as we go through some adversity, or we have to go through the early stages of the season, finding chemistry and jelling, that we have the right characters, the right type of guys to work through that.”
As per usual, Bielby expects the Falcons to be a solid defensive team.
“We’re never going to lose our identity as far as defending first, that’s very important to us,” he said. “It’s 100 per cent our way of teaching our young guys to take a lot of pride in the other side of the puck.”
Bielby also feels this year’s team has plenty of firepower.
“We put together a team that we expect to fill the net and we brought a blueline together and some defensive forwards that we should be able to keep the puck up. So that’s your formula to win hockey games. That’s how the team’s been built and that would be the expectations to get started.”
The Falcons have a good nucleus of players returning from last season along with some high-end additions, particularly up front.
Forwards Treyson Dewar, Tanner Hunt, Calvin Petrovsky and Marcus Harris return and will be augmented with new captain Cam Lowe, former Cambridge captain Matt Fries, ex-Port Colborne Sailor and Pelham Panther Brendan Grenville and St. Catharines native and former Caledonia Corvair and Welland Junior Canadian Nathan Duplessis, who netted 28 goals and 60 points for the Corvairs last season.
“We’ve brought in some OAs (overagers) up front that have been there and the expectation is for them to drive this team to where we want to go,” Bielby said.
The defence is solid and deep with the return of Dallys Hibbert, William Moore, Jordan Marconi, Trent Vaillancourt, Mitch Dymtrow and Luke Gualtieri. Peterborough Petes draft pick Lucas Tuin returns after a season in the Ontario Junior Hockey League and is expected to make a significant contribution. Luca Santostefano, who looked good limited duty last season, is also back.
“We had lots of injuries and suspensions and stuff back there last year, I think we had three guys miss a minimum six to eight weeks with injuries so we’re really excited to bring a lot of those guys back and knock on wood get a full year out of them,” Bielby said.
Niagara IceDogs draft pick Hayden Jeffery returns in goal following a standout rookie season that saw him register 24 wins, a 2.49 goals-against average and .925 save percentage.
“Well, the fact that Hayden’s put his trust into us speaks volumes of, I think, what all my coaches around me and the support staff, the culture that they’re working hard to create that a guy like that wants to put his trust in us. We just couldn’t be happier to have him back,” Bielby said.
Rookie Jacob Ceranic, a 16-year-old Ancaster native, will act as backup. Ceranic was selected by North Bay in the 10th round of the 2024 Ontario Hockey League draft. Ceranic had a 1.34 GAA and four shutouts for the Oakville Rangers U16 AAA team last season.
The Falcons host Cambridge Friday at 7 p.m. in the season opener for both clubs. St. Catharines travels to Port Colborne Saturday.
“Always excited,” Bielby said. “We talk about never having enough time in the day during the season, but then we get to the offseason and it’s just too long. So, yeah, it’s genuine excitement. We’ve been together for about three or four weeks now, so we’re ready to go.”
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