Hockey doesn’t take a holiday
Family Day will be a day off work for many in Niagara, but Monday won’t be a holiday from hockey for several junior teams based in the region.
The Niagara IceDogs and six of the nine teams playing in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Golden Horseshoe Conference are scheduled to take to the ice on a day set aside in the province to celebrate the importance of families.
While the IceDogs have the earliest faceoff, 2 p.m., they won’t be rejoining their real and billet families for dinner until after returning home from a road trip to Peterborough.
Members of the junior B Ancaster Avalanche and Fort Erie Meteors should at the table breaking bread before the IceDogs after their 3:30 p.m. puck drop at the Leisureplex.
At the end of the day, we have one or two guys who take the night off, and those one or two or three guys hurt the rest of the team.”
Welland Jr. Canadians head coach Keith Osborne
Late games in the Family Day lineup has the Pelham Panthers hosting the Welland Jr. Canadians beginning at 6 p.m. and the Caledonia Corvairs home to the Thorold Blackhawks in a 7:30 p.m. start.
Of all the local teams playing Monday, the Jr. Canadians will be the one most in need of a break following the holiday.
The renewal of the Battle of the Quaker Road rivalry with Pelham will be their third game in as many nights. Before taking one the Panthers for the sixth, and final, time this season, the B’s will have played the Buffalo Regals in a rare Saturday home game and hosted the St. Catharines Falcons the following night.
Normally, Welland would have had Saturday night off but will host Buffalo in a makeup match after a game was postponed due to inclement weather.
“We need to play the game because Pelham is one point behind us,” Jr. Canadians head coach Keith Obsorne said.
Buffalo fell to 1-40-0-4 following a 12-1 loss at home to Caledonia Tuesday after losing 4-3 in double overtime the night before in St. Catharines.
Welland leads Buffalo 10 points to one in head-to-head play so far this season, but Osborne suggested teams taking the one-win Regals lightly do so at their own peril.
“They’re much-improved,” Osborne said. “Unfortunately, their record is still 1-40.
“We can’t take them lightly.” Injuries and suspensions have taken their toll on Welland over the past two weeks, but the team is getting back to full strength.
“We seem to be getting a little bit healthier coming out of suspensions and the flu,” he said. “We seem to be starting to come around.
“We should be OK for the weekend.”
Welland enters the busy stretch hoping to snap a four-game losing streak and tighten a tenuous grip on sixth place in the conference.
The Jr. Canadians, 15-25-32; currently lead the Panthers, 15-26-1-3; by one point in the race to enter the playoffs as the sixth seed.
Pelham had an opportunity to move ahead of Welland when it visited the fifth-place Thorold Blackhawks Thursday night.
Results of that game were not available at press time but a summary is posted online at niagarafallsreview.ca, stcatharinesstandard.ca and wellandtribune.ca.
A lack of consistency, especially in the defensive zone, has been the Jr. Canadians’ biggest problem this season.
“At the end of the day, we have one or two guys who take the night off, and those one or two or three guys hurt the rest of the team,” Osborne said. “And the next game it will be two or three other guys taking the night off and, before you know it, you’re down 3-0 before the game starts.
“It’s all about being more consistent on any given night.”
Welland is 0-5 against St. Catharines and 2-3 versus Pelham entering the holiday weekend.
The Niagara Falls Canucks, Buffalo and St. Catharines are the only Golden Horseshoe teams not seeing action on Family Day, a statutory holiday in Ontario as well as Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.
Family Day is observed on the second Monday in February in British Columbia.