Preds record another win and loss this weekend

It was another .500 weekend for the Niagara Predators, their second in a row in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League. The Preds followed an 8-1 loss to the Bradford Bulls in Niagara-on-the-Lake Friday with a 3-1 victory over the Aces in Windsor on Saturday afternoon. 

The Bulls came storming out of the gate Friday night, with Remy Dalben netting their first goal just 25 seconds into the game. Elias Najem followed that up with another one for Bradford at 5:04. Two minutes later Leo Savin won a face-off in Bradford’s end, getting the puck back to Preds captain Max Bredin at the blue line. Bredin unleashed a quick wrist shot, finding the net behind Bulls goalie Jacob Hodgson and giving Niagara some hope. But that hope didn’t last long Friday. The Bulls capitalized on the Predators lacklustre skating, repeatedly catching them out of position and peppering starting goalie Ryan Santini with 16 shots in the period. Brad Arnott put Bradford up 3-1 before the first period ended.

The dam broke open for the Bulls about six minutes into the second period when Dalben got it started with his second goal of the game. Over the ensuing eight minutes Haiden Lambert, Connor Gardiner, Jacob Rose and Andrea Morana all contributed to the shellacking of the Preds, with Bradford outshooting Niagara 22-4 in the period.

With the score 8-1 for the Bulls, Niagara coach Kevin Taylor replaced Santini with Cameron Huff, who shut Bradford down the rest of the way, stopping all 17 of their shots. The Bulls outshot the Predators 49-22 when all was said and done. 

“It’s not (Santini’s) fault we lost 8-1,” Taylor said after Friday’s game. “Were there a couple he should have had? He told me he was overthinking a couple of times. But he’s our number one goalie. Even in games where we won he was facing 40-50 shots. That’s just bad team defence.”

“I stress ‘play the dots’,” he continued. “But I got guys chasing to the outside. When you go against a fast team like this they’re going to burn you wide, and they burned us wide all night.”

A common refrain from both Taylor and assistant coach Connor Shipton over the past two weeks is that the Predators are playing selfishly, not looking to make passes and instead trying to beat their opponents one-on-one too often. That led Friday to a bit of a shake-up of the lines in the third period.

“There are certain lines that are clicking, but there are players that I don’t think I put in the right spots,” Taylor admitted. “We were going to blow up the lines for next weekend, but this just gave me an excuse to start it
tonight.”

The lopsided loss left Taylor struggling to find some positives in the locker room after the game. “I like to joke around, I like to have fun,” Taylor said. “I’m not trying to be negative, I’m just trying to correct. I know I have to fix some things with my approach with them. I was happy with the third period effort, they played like they cared.”

Huff was back between the pipes Sunday in Windsor, backstopping the Predators to a 3-1 win over the Aces. Jaroslav Dhonal, Niagara’s leading scorer thus far with 13 points, scored twice Sunday, while 16-year-old forward Gianluca Minicozzi netted his first GMHL goal in the winning effort.

“That’s a huge monkey off (Minicozzi’s) back,” Taylor said Monday night. “He’s been struggling to get that first goal. That was one that he needed to get, hopefully the first of many more to come.” “We played a good game,” he continued. “We worked on the things that we needed to work on. Even the goal they got was off a lucky bounce that gave (Windsor’s Samuel Senft) a breakaway. And he’s a phenomenal player, he has the most goals (18) in the league.”

With a record of five wins, six losses and one overtime loss, the Preds are in sixth place in the GMHL’s nine- team Southern Division, 11 points behind the first place North York Renegades and Durham Roadrunners. They’ll have two chances to notch a win against the Renegades with a road game this Saturday in North York and a home tilt at Virgil’s Meridian Credit Union Arena on Friday, Nov. 11. In their lone contest thus far against North York, the Renegades came out on top 5-3, with one of their goals coming on an empty Predators net.

“It will be challenging,” admitted Taylor, “but I think the guys have more confidence in beating them than they would against Bradford. We competed against them last time. We’ve got lots of work to do, lots of practising to do.”