Panthers winless in three; Weekend junior B roundup
Not much went right for the Pelham Panthers this week, but head coach and assistant general manager Zac Rinaldo isn’t about to panic.
The Panthers dropped a 5-0 decision at home Sunday afternoon to the Caledonia Corvairs to fall to 0-3 after an 8-0 loss at Cambridge Saturday and a 7-6 defeat in Brantford Thursday to open the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League season.
But instead of being incensed with the losses, Rinaldo chose to look at the glass as half full.
“We’re going to take the positives from the weekend,” Rinaldo said calmly in his office following Sunday’s game. “Obviously we have a lot of teaching to do and we’re going to regroup, take the positives. We can finally have a full, strong week of practice and move forward.”
Rinaldo doesn’t feel peeling the paint off the walls isn’t the answer at this point.
“I think they’re young and they’re going to go through some growing pains,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve had enough practice time to jump down their throats in certain situations. But I’m holding guys accountable all game long and after the game there’s video and all that fun stuff.
“We’ve played three games in a row and the last thing you want to hear is all the negatives and the teaching clips so it’s just kind of move on and regroup tomorrow.”
Rinaldo feels there are a few of areas of concern from what he’s seen so far.
“I think just attention to detail and being attentive to detail, staying focused through the whole 60 minutes and staying out of the box and being disciplined,” he said.
Following six goals in the season opener, the offence has been blanked in two straight games.
“I do think it’s a combination of our players getting comfortable inside of the O-zone at this league,” he said. “We have a lot of young kids that haven’t played in this league before so I think it’s just having them find a good rhythm inside of the O-zone and finding what works. And I think it’s just having confidence you don’t have to score on every shot. Having that mentality that good things happen when you just put it to the net.
“A lot of these players had a point per game in U18 in minor hockey and their mindset might still be that way, whereas it’s not the case anymore and they’re trying to do too much. But we’ll fix it. It’s just some growing pains.”
Rinaldo feels keeping everyone on the same page when a team struggles is paramount.
“When we were struggling it really helped when the coach just let us be together and left us alone and internally we took care of the locker room. The leaders and the older guys kind of took the reins and organized team things and they just stayed together in times like this. I think staying together is the most important thing and practicing extremely, extremely hard and buying into the details, being at the rink every day and being with each other every day.”
With only eight teams in each conference qualifying for the playoffs, Rinaldo says he will be patient — but only to a point.
“At the beginning of the season, the first games are crucial points to collect where everyone’s kind of trying to figure out their mojo and trying to figure out their the rhythm to their season,” he said. “At the beginning of the season, you have to collect these points because if you are missing out on two or three points at the end of the season, you could have collected those points at the beginning of the season.
“I am still focused on collecting as many points as we can in the first 10 games. Obviously, it is not the outcome we wanted. No points this weekend, but all we have to do is keep moving forward.”
STATS PACK
Corvairs 5 Panthers 0
Caledonia goaltender Davis Penner with 30 saves for the shutout.
Pelham Panthers: No scoring.
Caledonia Corvairs: Luc Gauvreau (1); Ethan Royer (1); Ethan Brassard (1); Connor Doerbecker (1); Ethan Quick (1).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Pelham on Davis Penner (30), by Caledonia on Birk Cassels (45); Power plays: Pelham 0/3, Caledonia 0/1; Penalty minutes: Pelham 24; Caledonia 16.
Attendance: 225.
Up next: The Panthers host the Welland Jr. Canadians Friday at 7:15 p.m.
SUNDAY
Meteors 7 Junior Canadians 0
The Meteors made it two wins and two shutouts in two nights with a 7-0 victory at Welland.
Rookie Finn Moffett made 30 saves for the shutout in his junior debut.
Zac Mizzi had two goals while Chris Reid, Caleb Bidgood, R.J. Schmidt, Hunter Coley and Sam Tonelli scored.
SATURDAY
Sailors 4 Falcons 2
The Port Colborne Sailors opened their season on a winning note, doubling the visiting St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons at the Vale Centre.
Brody Coe, Nathan DiPietro, Vasily Serov and Jonathan Dudziak scored for the Sailors.
Lucas Tuin and Treyson Dewar replied for the Falcons.
JJ Salajko made 23 saves in goal to earn the win.
“Need to be ready to play every night,” Falcons head coach and president of hockey operations Tyler Bielby said. “We were outworked and came out flat. It’s a long season and there is always plenty of teachables this time of year. It’s important we learn from those teachables and get better every night.
“We get right back to work Tuesday, have a good week of practice, and be ready for the next two points.”
Corvairs 4 Centennials 3
Clark Dunford scored twice as the Caledonia Corvairs opened their season with a victory at home over the Ayr Centennials.
Drew Agnew and Ethan Osborne also scored while Keegan Jackson made 27 saves for the win.
Kilty B’s 2 Titans 0
Gabriel Longo made 19 saves for the shutout as the Hamilton Kilty B’s blanked the visiting Brantford Titans.
Lucas Kisil and Evan Drell scored in the second period for the winners.
THIS WEEK
THURSDAY
Welland at Hamilton, 7 p.m.
Caledonia at Brantford, 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Brantford at St. Catharines, 7 p.m.
Welland at Pelham, 7:15 p.m.
SATURDAY
St. Catharines at Cambridge, 7 p.m.
Ayr at Fort Erie, 7 p.m.
Hamilton at Caledonia, 7:30 p.m.
SUNDAY
Port Colborne at Pelham, 2:45 p.m.
Caledon at Welland, 7 p.m.
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