Seventh heaven for Canucks
David D’Agostino went from goat to hero Monday night and gave the Niagara Falls Canucks their first Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference championship since the 2010-11 season.
The 21-year-old St. Davids native scored his second goal of the game with 21 seconds left in regulation play to lift Niagara Falls to a wild 7-6 victory over the St. Catharines Falcons in Game 7 of the championship series.
“I got a lucky bounce and I put it away. It’s a treat,” the 5-foot-10, 180-pound defenceman said. “I got burned on their tying sixth goal and it feels great to get the winner.”
Niagara Falls gave up 4-2, 5-4 and 6-5 leads in the entertaining but sloppy game, but the Canucks showed plenty of resiliency in recording the victory.
“The boys know how to win,” D’Agostino said. “Unfortunately, we went down early in a couple of games but we never quit, we came back, did our due diligence and came out with four wins.”
The Golden Horseshoe championship was a fitting reward for D’Agostino, who returned to Niagara after playing two seasons with the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
“It was my 20-year-old year and I kind of wanted to get school going, be near my family and try and win a cup here,” said the winner of the Corporal Tyler Crooks Memorial Award as Golden Horseshoe Conference Player of the Year during the regular season.
It didn’t take the former draft pick of the Oshawa Generals long before he realized a cup run was a distinct possibility.
“It was really early, maybe five or 10 games in, as long as we keep doing our thing,” he said. “We are just talented through out whole lineup and everybody can step up at any moment and shine and provide that highlight goal.”
The goal now for D’Agostino is to make his junior hockey career last as long as possible.
“This is the last shot for all the 20-year-olds on our team but not only that, this could be the last shot for the younger guys on the team,” he said. “Everyone is going balls out and that’s it.”
By virtue of their winning percentage in the playoffs, win or lose the Canucks were advancing to the Sutherland Cup finals. That wasn’t on the minds of the Canucks Monday.
“I think that affected us the last game, but enough was enough,” D’Agostino said. “They really took it to us last night and tonight it was a matter of playing Wednesday night or Friday night. We obviously wanted a couple of days off.”
A loss and the Canucks would have opened the Sutherland Cup semifinals Wednesday in London. Because of the win, they open Friday at home versus Waterloo.
“I’ve got three days now to get everything in order and get our team ready. We will be ready,” Canucks head coach/GM Frank Pietrangelo said. “We would have started Wednesday in London which would have been much more difficult and we talked about it today what our goal was.
“Our goal was to win a championship.”
The Canucks did exactly that, but the win was definitely of the ugly variety.
“I think fatigue plays a big part in this type of thing and there was a lot of up and down emotions by both teams,” Pietrangelo said. “We’re happy we prevailed and I’m sure they are disappointed and rightfully so.
“It was an exciting game. How well-played it was, I don’t know. There were a lot of mistakes, but when you play seven games in a period of nine or 10 days with overtimes, you are going to have that.”
The win is extra special for Pietrangelo because it was his first title since purchasing the team in 2014-15.
“It has been a great year and these young men are warriors,” he said. “Last time we lost and got spanked pretty good and to come back shows you the resilience these guys have.
“There is no quit in these guys.”
The Canucks haven’t spent much time preparing for the next series, focusing instead on winning the Golden Horseshoe crown.
“We know we are playing a good hockey club, no matter who we play,” Pietrangelo said. “Whether it was Leamington, Waterloo, Listowel, London or St. Catharines, we knew there was five good teams. Every night now is going to be a tough game.”
Canucks goalie Zack Moore was named the MVP of the playoffs.
“Mooresy is our backbone and he never got acknowledged for anything he did all year,” Pietrangelo said. “He won 30 games for us and he’s there every night for us. If he doesn’t have a good game, he bounces back.”
Canucks 7 Falcons 6
BPSN Star of the Game: Niagara Falls defenceman David D’Agostino with two goals, including the winner.
St. Catharines Falcons: Christian Girhiny 2 (15, 16); Jacob Roach (13); Carson Edwardson (11); Xavier Drummond (10); Dakota Miskolczi (3).
Niagara Falls Canucks: David D’Agostino 2 (10, 11); Mitch Mendonca 2 (15, 16); Ben Evans (10); Andrew Bruno (6); Ryan Smith (3).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Zach Moore (30), by Niagara Falls on Noah Battaglia (33); Power plays: St. Catharines 2-for-3, Niagara Falls 0-for-3; Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 8, Niagara Falls 4.
Attendance: 1,507.
Up next: The Canucks take on the Waterloo Siskins of the Midwest Conference in the Sutherland Cup semifinal. Game 1 is Friday in Niagara Falls.
