Canucks visit Waterloo trailing 3-0
Siskins come back to push Niagara Falls to brink of elimination in Sutherland Cup semifinal
What’s the definition of a good Good Friday?
If you’re the Niagara Falls Canucks, it’s not getting the night off.
Given a choice, the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League team would also prefer to spend Easter Sunday on the ice visiting the Waterloo Siskins in a playoff matinee rather than sitting around the table tucking into a family dinner.
With the Canucks down 3-0 in a best-of-seven Sutherland Cup semifinal and facing elimination, any plans for the long weekend would be premature at this point, however.
First, there’s Game 4 Thursday in Waterloo and, providing they win, the fifth game the following night on their home ice at Gale Centre.
Owner-head coach Frank Pietrangelo, whose junior B team dropped a 3-2 decision at home Tuesday, said the Canucks will be
approaching Thursday night’s elimination game like they do every contest.
“It’s not just today. Every game we’ve made adjustments to try to better ourselves, to try to nullify things that they’re doing and have been successful with,” he said.
“I can’t pinpoint one thing for you and say, ‘We’re going to do this, and this is going to make a difference in this series.’
“Every player to a man needs to be a little bit better and, if we are, we have to chip away at this thing one game at a time.”
Take away an empty-netter in Game 1 and an insurance goal late in the third period in the second game, every game in the Niagara Falls-Waterloo series has come down to one goal.
“They’ve all been really, more or less, one-goal games. I thought we played well all three games,” Pietrangelo said. “To be honest with you, they’ve been a little bit better, a little more opportunistic with their opportunities.”
The former NHL goaltender and a Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 isn’t at all surprised that mistakes and missed opportunities are magnified at this point in the playoffs.
“It’s tough at this time of the year,” Pietrangelo said. “These are the top four teams in Ontario, and everybody has to be at their best.
“Teams are all good hockey clubs, and one mistake here or there, or one opportunity not taken advantage of, makes a difference in the outcome of the game.”
All goals were scored on the power play Tuesday night when the Canucks hosted Waterloo hoping to cut the deficit in the semifinal.
Golden Horseshoe Conference champion Niagara Falls came into the game trailing the playoff two games to none.
While the Canucks outshot the Midwest champions 40-36 and took a 2-1 lead into the third period, the Siskins scored two unanswered goals for a 3-2 victory, pushing Niagara Falls to the brink of elimination.
Dillon Hill and Patrick McCabe scored for the Canucks. Alex Lycett, Jeff Schrattner and Owen Lane found the back of the net for the Siskins.
Niagara Falls went 2-for-3 with a man advantage; Waterloo, 3for-4.
The winner of the series will likely play the London Nationals in a best-of-seven final for the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League championship.
London, the Western Conference representative in the final four, hosted the wild card Listowel Cyclones Wednesday night leading that semifinal three games to one.
Niagara Falls isn’t focusing on taking the series, only on winning the next game.
“We can’t look at it as four games, because that’s a big mountain to climb,” Pietrangelo said. “Our job right now is to win Thursday and force a Game 5 on Friday.
“It is what it is. We can’t look back. We can’t do anything about what’s happened to date. All we can do is try to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday and the games before.”
This year’s tournament entrants have combined to win 15 Sutherland Cups: Waterloo, 11, the last in 1994; Niagara Falls, two, 1996, ’98; Listowel, one, 2018; London, one, 2013.
The Canucks advanced to play Waterloo after defeating the St. Catharines Falcons in a sevengame conference final that included three overtime games to capture their first Golden Horseshoe championship since 2011.
Waterloo qualified for the tournament by sidelining defending Sutherland Cup champion Listowel in six games in the Midwestern final.