Predators improve but still drop two

Last weekend ended with two losses for the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League’s Niagara Predators. Though the results were almost the same standings-wise, they were miles apart when it came to effort and attitude. 

The Predators played what was probably their most complete game of the season Friday night, a 6–5 overtime loss to the North York Renegades. In light of the fact that the Preds had been outshot 50–35 in a 9–0 loss to the same team the previous week, it was the highlight of their season thus far.

North York’s Ryan Fritz opened the scoring 2:36 into the game when he was left alone in front of Niagara goaltender Cameron Huff and beat him with a shot to the top shelf. 

But the Predators had come to play a physical, dominating brand of hockey Friday. The Preds used their bodies throughout the game, surprising the Renegades with check after check on both ends of the ice. They outshot North York 11–7 in the first period. 

Niagara tied it up before the midway point of the first, when North York goaltender Christopher Thompson couldn’t cover up the puck in the crease, giving forward Tyler Gearing a chance to knock it in for the goal. 

Dawson Walker put Niagara up 2–1 in the second period when he capitalized on a turnover at the North York blue line and beat Thompson on a slap shot. But Nikolai Salov quickly responded for the Renegades, and four minutes later Christopher Rende put the first place team up 3–2. 

After a contentious fight early in the third that resulted in North York’s Niko Andreopoulos being thrown from the game and Niagara’s Riley Ellis receiving both fighting and fight instigator penalties, the two teams got busy trading goals back and forth.

In the most exciting period of hockey from the Preds all season, Nick Savoie tied the game up with a power play goal, his first goal of the season. Leo Savin made it 4–3 Predators when he shot from behind the Renegades net, bouncing the puck off the back of Thompson’s leg and across the line for the go-ahead goal.

But Joseph Lionti tied it up less than three minutes later, before Anthony Tropea put Niagara back on top 5–4 with a picture-perfect break-away goal. Unfortunately, Salov’s second of the game knotted the score up 5–5, and it remained that way through the end of the third period. 

Then, two minutes into the overtime frame, Maurizio Reale sealed the 6–5 victory for the Renegades.

Despite the overtime loss, Predators head coach Kevin Taylor was all smiles after the game. 

‘They were doing everything we wanted them to do,” said an obviously pleased Taylor. “What I’m happy about, we lost last time 9–0, and we came back and took them to overtime. We got a point that I don’t think anybody expected. We lost the game, but the fans were clapping when we came off the ice. I think they got their money’s worth today.”

Taylor praised goaltender Cameron Huff for allowing Niagara to compete with North York. 

“He made the saves he needed to make,” Taylor said. “He kept us in the game. He played great tonight. But the whole team, everybody put the effort in. They came to work. For a week we sat on that 9–0 loss. That was an embarrassing loss. This game could have gone either way.”

Unfortunately, the Predators weren’t able to take Friday’s momentum into Sunday’s game against a depleted Aces squad in Windsor. Their lackluster performance in a 4–1 loss had Taylor frustrated once again. 

“I can’t explain how they laid an egg after Friday’s game,” said Taylor. “They probably made maybe 20 hits all game. It’s another embarrassing loss, against a team that had only ten skaters and three goalies.”

Anthony Tropea scored the lone Predators goal, while Samuel Senft and Ryan Patterson each netted a pair for the Aces. The shots on goal were even at 30 for both teams. 

“It should have been a cakewalk,” Taylor lamented. “The fourth line guys and the back-up goalies should have had a chance to show me what they could do. It’s frustrating. I need my top six to be better than their top six.”

Despite the loss, leaving the Preds with a record of 5-8-2, eight points up on the 2-15-0 Aces and in seventh place in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League’s nine-team South Division, he feels the team is missing just one or two key players. 

“There’s a lack of hockey leadership on the team,” he says. “We’re missing that guy that knows how to win, that knows the importance of each minute. They need their brother-in-arms beside them to push them. It can’t be the coach all the time.”

The Predators have a chance to exact some revenge this Friday as the Aces visit Virgil’s Meridian Credit Arena at 7:30 p.m. Taylor promises his young team will not play the way they did Sunday. 

“We’ll be making some changes this week,” he tells The Local. “We have a new player coming for Friday who will hopefully bring some leadership to the team. I think they went in there Sunday and just took Windsor lightly. They won’t be doing that Friday.”

PREDATORS NOTE:

At Friday’s game, goaltender Ryan Santini was presented with the Predators Player of the Month award for the month of October. 

“My company, Tristan’s Place Mental Health Services, is sponsoring the award,” Taylor said Friday night. “This award is from the team’s perspective. He’s way up there in save percentage and he’s kept us in so many of the games.”

Santini leads the GMHL in saves with 364 made in ten games for the Predators. He’s faced 408 shots, by far the most in the league, and has a save percentage of 0.892.