Strong start by Sailors sinks RiverHawks

The Niagara RiverHawks fell to the Port Dover Sailors 7-5 at the Gale Centre in Provincial Junior Hockey League action.

The Sailors came out strong outshooting the RiverHawks 11-5 and holding a 1-0 lead after the first period.

The Sailors continued to press early in the second period and built a 4-0 lead by the six-minute mark before Danny Gallagher and Lucas Maciejewski scored late in the period to close the gap to 4-2 heading into the third period.

The RiverHawks stormed out in the third period with three unanswered goals by Dante Zawadzki, Tyler Langlais and Gallagher’s second of the game to give the RiverHawks a 5-4 lead.

However, with less than four minutes to go Port Dover tied it on what looked like a harmless shot from the blueline that deflected off the goalie’s stick and into the net. That seemed to spark the visitors who scored again with just under two minutes to play and added an empty netter for the win.

“We had a slugglish start for the first half of the game,” Niagara head coach Rob DeGiuli said. “Give Dover credit. They came out skating hard and that’s what you have to do in this league to be successful.

“You can’t give teams a fourgoal lead and expect to win but I’m proud of the guys for battling back like they did but it’s difficult to keep playing from behind. We just didn’t have our legs at the beginning of the game and a couple of defensive breakdowns cost us the game. We are still giving up too many shots against and need to tighten up in our own end.

“I thought we deserved a better fate after battling back like we did.”

Sebastian Iannone started the game in goal for the RiverHawks and made 12 saves on 15 shots before being replaced by Daniel Kocsis in the second period. Kocsis made 24 saves on 27 shots.

Overall Port Dover outshot the Riverhawks 43-26.

Assists for the game went to Nolan Riley (2), Mason Durant(2), Richard Deschatelets, Langlais, Kosta Makarevich, and Matthew Maidens,

The RiverHawks are in Dundas Friday and to Port Dover Sunday. BPotrecz@Postmedia.com twitter@BillPStandard