Weekend junior B roundup: Tonelli comes of age; GOJHL tourney sked
Sam Tonelli has kicked up his game a notch this season.
The 19-year-old forward has always possessed a nice offensive touch, but this season is leading the Fort Erie Meteors in goals (14), assists (22) and points (36) and is tied for first place in league scoring with Joey Martin of the Elmira Sugar Kings.
“I think he got a taste of winning and he realized how much it means to him,” Meteors assistant coach Anthony Passero said of Tonelli. “He decided to take another step in his game and really elevated it every night instead of just being a point guy. He does it at both ends and I think it comes from him having the role he had in playoffs last year.
“I think he’s been a point guy for most of his hockey career, but he saw last year playing, whether it’s in front of or behind Liam Beamish, how much more there is to the game. He brought that for us. Without him playing the way he did defensively last year, we have no chance.”
Tonelli said he has always considered himself a 200-foot player.
“I feel it’s been more of a focus of mine since I started playing hockey,” the Port Colborne native said. “My parents sort of drilled it in my head that it’s defence first, get the puck in, and then worry about offence. So it hasn’t really been that hard because it’s been my main focus.”
Tonelli is well aware good defence leads to offence.
“It definitely helps. Getting the puck out, moving it out quick is definitely a massive factor in getting into the offensive zone and creating,” he said. “Now I have the chance to create. If I’m playing defence for 40 seconds and now I’m dead tired, I can’t go do that. So if you really focus on getting that puck out quick and early, now you can have that time and the energy to go down and play some offence.”
Tonelli has been paired with captain Kyle Adamo most of the season and the two have developed into a dangerous combination.
“I think we’re always looking for each other,” Tonelli said. “We’re both sort of pass-first guys and our first option is each other. So we’re always looking for each other first or eventually. (Knowing) I have him to kick it out to, or I have this great player that I can now move the puck to, is just a great feeling.”
Tonelli had four goals in 17 regular season games last season after being picked up at the trade deadline from the Port Colborne Sailors, then really shone in the playoffs with eight goals and 17 points in 21 games.
Tonelli feels that experience has played a big role in his strong start this season.
“The teams playing that pace of hockey was definitely a huge, a huge learning experience and then now we want to do it again,” he said. “We’re all trying to push for that same goal because we felt what it feels like and we felt like what it feels like not to win. We have that little bit of we need to get back there and we need to do more this year.”
The Meteors had a couple hiccups earlier this season but have been playing some of their best hockey of the season in the last few weeks.
“I think it was early, and we weren’t comfortable as a whole yet, we just weren’t comfortable with each other,” Tonelli said. “The chemistry wasn’t all there and now we’ve been sort of rolling and it’s been going well.”
The Meteors, 16-6-1, are well within reach of the St. Catharines Falcons and Ayr Centennials for first place. They have been consistently strong defensively — they have permitted the second fewest goals in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League to date — but have sputtered on occasion at the other end of the rink.
“We like to have 12 guys up front scoring, but it’s not the way it works all the time,” Passero said. “When Sammy’s scoring, we’re winning hockey games, and I think he takes a lot of pride in that. You can see it in practice, and you can see it in the game when he doesn’t do it, how frustrating it is for him. I think that him and Kyle have a little good competition going and kind of bring some drive to their line and they definitely want to score goals.”
The Meteors have scored 85 goals in their first 23 games.
“We always need more offence,” Passero said. “We’re pretty fortunate that we allow so little defensively. Winning games by one goal is tough to do all the time and we’d like to see these guys fill the back of the net more but we definitely won’t sacrifice how we are in our own side of the ice for that. We just hope that we can bring both eventually.”
The Meteors, who were blanked 1-0 at St. Catharines Friday, rebounded with a 6-0 win over the Caledon Bombers Saturday night at home.
Tonelli led the way with two goals and two assists while Kyle Adamo added a goal and two assists. Dustin Lariviere, picked up from Welland last week for Ben Arnold, had a goal and two assists while Hunter Coley and Tate Donald also scored. Rylan Masterson chipped in with three assists.
Finn Moffett made 16 saves to earn the shutout.
SATURDAY
Junior Canadians 4 Corvairs 3 OT
Joshua Cacciola scored 4:43 in to overtime as the visiting Welland Junior Canadians upset the Caledonia Corvairs.
Ben Arnold, Thomas Dimoulos and Jack Ryan also scored for Welland.
Ivan Kastelan made 54 saves for the win.
Clark Dunford, Tyler Clark and Ethan Quick replied for Caledonia.
Davis Penner and Keegan Jackson split the goaltending chores for the Corvairs, each permitted two goals.
SUNDAY
Junior Canadians 4 Sailors 3 OT
Christiano Stogiannis scored less than a minute into overtime to complete a thrilling comeback for the Junior Canadians.
Jack Ryan had two goals and Braden Carruthers one for Welland, which trailed 3-1 with just more than five minutes to play.
Carter Timmins, Hudson Wozney and Easton Lynds replied for Port.
Kastelan had another standout performance with 41 saves in goal for Welland.
THIS WEEK
FRIDAY
Stratford vs. St. Catharines, 10:30 a.m.
Waterloo vs. Port Colborne, 11 a.m.
St. Thomas vs. Ayr, 1:30 p.m.
Strathroy vs. Caledon 2 p.m.
St. Marys vs. London, 4:30 p.m.
Komoka vs. Brantford, 5 p.m.
Listowel vs. Caledonia, 7:30 p.m.
Chatham vs. Welland, 8 p.m.
All games played at Caledonia.
SATURDAY
Elmira vs. Pelham, 10:30 a.m.
Port Colborne vs. Stratford, 11 a.m.
Brantford vs. Sarnia, 1:30 p.m.
LaSalle vs. Fort Erie, 2 p.m.
Cambridge vs. Komoka, 4:30 p.m.
Hamilton vs. Listowel, 5 p.m.
Caledonia vs. Strathroy, 7:30 p.m.
Ayr vs. St. Marys, 8 p.m.
All games played at Caledonia.
SUNDAY
Caledon vs. St. Thomas, 10:30 a.m.
London vs. Cambridge, 11 a.m.
St. Catharines vs. LaSalle, 1:30 p.m.
Sarnia vs. Hamilton, 2 p.m.
Fort Erie vs. Chatham, 4:30 p.m.
Welland vs. Elmira, 5 p.m.
Pelham vs. Waterloo, 7:30 p.m.
All games played at Caledonia.
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