Falcons overwhelm Canucks
After completing last season with the Pickering Panthers of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, Jacob Roach thought he was done with hockey.
“I decided I was going to quit hockey and focus on school and about two weeks into school, Frank (Girhiny) reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to be a Falcon,” the 18-year-old Whitby native said. “I liked what I saw, I liked the team, I liked the players and I decided to join.”
The first-year sports management student at Brock was brought to the attention of St. Catharines Falcons head coach/GM Girhiny by Brock men’s hockey coach Marty Williamson. It has turned out better than anyone could have imagined.
Roach had 29 goals and a team-leading 93 points in 47 regular-season games and hasn’t missed a beat in the playoffs. On Tuesday night, he had two goals and an assist to lead the Falcons to a 6-1 victory over the Niagara Falls Canucks in Game 4 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference finals at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls. St. Catharines now leads the series 2-1.
Roach has four goals and two assists in the last two games of the championship series and leads the Falcons in playoff scoring with nine goals and 33 points in 13 games.
It’s a quantum leap in scoring for the 5-foot-11, 190-pound forward who managed eight goals and 32 points in 44 games with Pickering last season.
“I’ve got a lot of help from my teammates,” he said. “(Christian) Girhiny came in late and him and I have some good chemistry as well as Frank has given me some opportunities here in St. Catharines.
“It has really helped me develop as a player, but team success all goes towards me having lots of points.”
The playoffs have been more of the same for Roach.
“I’ve just stayed positive,” he said. “Guys try to get in your ear here and there, but you just have to stay focused and play as a team. Team success is always better than individual success.”
Girhiny can’t say enough about Roach.
“He is one of the best players, if not the best player playing in the OHA,” he said. “There’s Quebec league teams here every night wanting him for next year. He’s really good and he’s a 2000 (birth date).”
Roach and Christian Girhiny have become a formidable trio along with Xavier Drummond.
“They play really well, but he (Roach) is really driving the bus right now and the kids are buying in.”
St. Catharines played its best game of the final series, blowing the game open with four unanswered goals in the second period to build an insurmountable 5-1 advantage. The scoring onslaught chased Niagara Falls starting goalie Zack Moore from the net.
“It was a really good game,” Frank Girhiny said. “The boys are executing, we have a really good game plan, we’re using our speed and we are trying to get on their D (defence).”
He is a long way from planning any victory party.
“I don’t expect it to be the same tomorrow (Wednesday) night,” Girhiny said. “They’re a good team and they have a lot of pride over there.”
Canucks head coach Frank Pietrangelo was surprisingly calm after watching his team play poorly Tuesday night.
‘They were the better team tonight so we turn the page,” he said.
Moore didn’t have his best game in net, but that was just one of many problems for Niagara Falls.
“I don’t think we were good in many aspects tonight,” Pietrangelo said. “Their power play was better, their penalty kill was better, their goalie made more saves than our’s did and the result was 6-1.”
He prefers to look forward rather than back.
“That’s playoff hockey,” Pietrangelo said. “The game ended 20 minutes ago and we are talking about tomorrow night now and not about what has happened tonight.”
The Canucks are facing adversity for one of the few times this season.
“We haven’t faced a ton of adversity because we have usually imposed our will on most teams,” he said. “But we played Hamilton and St. Catharines during the regular season and they were tough games like these ones.
“It’s a 2-1 series and we knew it was going to be a tough series.”
Pietrangelo is looking forward to the return to the lineup of Patrick McCabe. The feisty forward will return Wednesday after a six-game suspension. Also missing is Justin Kyle, the league’s MVP and regular season leading scorer. He is listed as day-to-day.
“Kyle is a big hole to fill, but we will do our best,” Pietrangelo said. “We have to win tomorrow and even the series up.”
Pietrangelo is still waiting to see the best version of his team in the championship series.
“We haven’t played the way we need to be successful,” he said. “They are a good hockey team and we understand that, but so are we.
“Hopefully we can have short-term memory and flip the switch.”
STATS PACK
Falcons 6 Canucks 1
BPSN Star of the Game: St. Catharines’ Jacob Roach with two goals and an assist.
For the St. Catharines Falcons: Roach (8, 9); Carson Edwardson (9, 10); Christian Girhiny (10); Kyle West (5).
For the Niagara Falls Canucks: Nicholas Prestia (5).
Game stats: Shots on goal: by Niagara Falls on Noah Battaglia 19, by St. Catharines on Zach Moore and Anthony Tremonte 33. Power plays: Niagara Falls 0-6, St. Catharines 1-7. Penalty minutes: Niagara Falls 44, St. Catharines 14.
Up next: Game 4 of the series goes Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines.
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