‘We were one shot short’
Hard-fought road loss eliminates Canucks from contention for Sutherland Cup title
Aseason in which the Niagara Falls Canucks captured three team trophies saw the junior B hockey team finish the playoffs falling short of winning a fourth.
Aquest for a berth in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League final and, after that, a third Sutherland Cup championship and first since 1998 were dashed Sunday afternoon in a 3-1 loss to the host Waterloo Siskins.
Midwestern Conference champion Waterloo outshot Niagara Falls, the Golden Horseshoe representative, 45-36, snapping a two-game losing streak to take the best-of-seven semifinal four games to two.
Canucks owner-head coach Frank Pietrangelo was disappointed with the loss, though not with his team’s play in the wellplayed fourth-round series.
“Every game was the same. They were all hard-fought battles,” he said from Waterloo. “Both teams left everything on the ice. Unfortunately, for us today, we were one shot short.”
Sam Cherry opened the scoring 17:23 into the first period with a power-play goal for the Siskins, who hosted the Canucks hoping to rebound from a 4-3 loss Thursday at home and a 6-4 setback the following night in Niagara Falls.
Shots on net in the opening frame was 12-10 in favour of the visitors.
In the second period, Waterloo outshot Niagara Falls 19-13, but the Canucks’ Andrew Bruno accounted for the only goal on a penalty shot.
Rounding out the scoring were third-period goals from the Siskins’ Joseph Serpa, on the power play; and Cherry, into an empty net.
Niagara Falls finished the game 0-for-1 on the power play; Waterloo, 2-for-5.
For the Canucks, having to say goodbye to eight graduating players added to the disappointment of the Game 6 loss.
“It’s never an easy thing to say goodbye to them, guys who have been with the program for a number of years,” Pietrangelo said. “Any experience like this can only help your program.
“At this time of year, we’re more focused on that we lose eight quality 20-year-olds.”
In 2018-19, the Canucks
defeated the St. Catharines Falcons in a thrilling, sevengame final to win their first Golden Horseshoe Conference playoff championship since 2011. Niagara Falls finished the regular season first in the conference and first overall in the league.
“We accomplished a lot. We did a lot of great things this year,” Pietrangelo said. “We got three trophies winning the regular season title, the GOJHL title and the Golden Horseshoe Conference playoff championship and going six games in the Sutherland Cup semifinals.
“Obviously, we’re proud of what we’ve done. We fell short of our last goal. Right now, we’re a little bit disappointed.”
Special-teams play contributed to host Niagara Falls’ 6-4 victory in Game 5 on Friday night at Gale Centre.
While the Canucks were anything but exceptional on the power play, netting only one goal in eight opportunities with a man advantage, they scored a shorthanded goal and held the Siskins scoreless on six power-play chances.
Shots on goal Friday night were 35-30 in favour of the Canucks, who got scoring from Ryan Donovan, Ben Evans on the power play; Justin Randhawa short-handed; Patrick McCabe, Matthew Riva and Dillon Hill, empty net.
Dominick DiPonio, Brett Schaefer, Matthew Prucha and
Winston Cestnick found the back of the net for Waterloo.
Waterloo qualified for the tournament by sidelining Listowel in six games in the Midwestern final. Western Conference champion London tripled the host Listowel Cyclone 3-1 on Friday to win that semifinal in six games.
Listowel, the defending Sutherland Cup championships, qualified for the four-team tournament as the wild card.
This year’s tournament field have combined to win 15 Sutherland Cups: Waterloo, 11, the last in 1994; Niagara Falls, two, 1996, ’98; Listowel, one, 2018; London, one, 2013.