Cats wrap up 5-point weekend with win

Panthers rebound from heartbreaking loss in double overtime with back-to-back victories

Matt Ruigrok scored two goals, assisted on two others, and the visiting Pelham Panthers defeated the Welland

Jr. Canadians, 5-2, wrapping up a five-point weekend.

Pelham jumped out to a 2-0 lead in Sunday night’s Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Golden Horseshoe Conference game at Welland Arena on goals from Owen Allan and Chris Webber.

Cody Wall put the Jr. Canadians on the scoreboard with his first of the game with 39 seconds remaining in the first period. Allan and Wall traded power-play goals to account for the scoring in the middle frame.

Ruigrok’s goals, both unassisted, came in the third period in a game dominated by the Panthers on the shot clock by a 51-27 margin.

Third-place Pelham, which opened the weekend Friday with a 3-2 loss in double overtime to Hamilton and doubled Lockport 6-3 the following night, improved to 25-15-0-5.

Seventh-place Welland lost its 19th in a row to fall to 8-33-0-4 in junior B league play.

The Panthers went 2-for-5 on the power play; the Jr. Canadians 1-for-8.

Pelham was scheduled to play the Kilty B’s Monday night at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena.

Welland’s next game is Wednesday at the Fort Erie Meteors.

Ruigrok also had two goals Saturday at Meridian Community Centre in Fonthill where the Panthers outshot the Regals 47-26. Nathan Gallen, Mark Honchar, Wyatt Thole and

Allan rounded out the scoring for Pelham. Alex Stinis, with two goals; and Erich Thur replied for the Regals, eighth, 7-36-1-0.

On Friday, Luke Croucher’s second goal of the game, 2:49 into overtime, gave Hamilton a come-from-behind victory over Pelham. Marino also found the back of the net for the third-place Kilty B’s, who improved their record to 34-11-0-1.

Brendan Charlton and Noah Caperchione scored for Pelham, which led 2-1 before Croucher’s power-play marker 16:02 into the second period sent the game into overtime.

Falcons 8, Blackhawks 2

At St. Catharines, Jacob Kelly scored two goals and Jacob Roach led all players with four assists as the league- and Golden Horseshoe Conference-leading Falcons improved their record to 37-5-0-2 with the whistle-to-whistle win over fifth-place Thorold, 18-22-1-4.

St. Catharines, which jumped out to a 6-0 lead and outshot the Blackhawks 37-35, also got goals from Nicholas Boehmer, Xavier Drummond, Christian Girhiny, Tanner Main, Noah Solinger and Kyle West.

Jonathan Balah accounted for the Thorold offence scoring twice in Friday night junior B action at Jack Gatecliff Arena.

Canucks 3, Meteors 2

At Niagara Falls, Justin Randhawa’s second goal of the game, on the power play goal, with 2:08 remaining in regulation; gave the hosts a win over Fort Erie.

Patrick McCabe also scored for the Canucks, who took a 2-0 lead into the final frame after a scoreless opening period.

Matthew Minichiello, Brady Lee replied for the Meteors in a skirmish in the Battle of Niagara Parkway in which every goal was scored on the power play.

Niagara Falls went 3-for-6 with a man advantage; Fort Erie, 2-for-6.

Shots on net were 36-28 in favour of the Canucks, who improved to 37-6-0-1 to remain one point behind

St. Catharines. The sixth-place Meteors dropped to 11-29-0-4.

First-place was on the line Monday at Gale Centre in Niagara Falls where the Canucks hosted the Falcons in one of two matinees on Family Day. Thorold visited Fort Erie in the other matchup.

The lone Golden Horseshoe game on the junior B schedule tonight has St. Catharines in western New York playing the Lockport Regals.