’Hawks, B’s skate to draw

Charles Grimard made 37 saves backstopping the visiting Welland Jr. Canadians to a 3-3 tie in double overtime with the Thorold Blackhawks.

Welland scored two unanswered goals in the third period to force overtime in Thursday night’s junior B game at Thorold Community Arena.

Alexander Dameski, Tanner McEachern and Noah Bollert each scored a goal as the Jr. Canadians improved their record in head-tohead play against the Blackhawks to a win and two ties and to 9-142-1 overall.

James Guest netted two goals and Trevor Neumann one for Thorold, now 9-11-2-2 in league play.

The fifth-place Blackhawks lead the B’s by one point in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey’s nineteam Golden Horseshoe Conference and have two games in hand.

Thorold was playing in its fourth overtime game in five starts.

Welland, which has earned at least a point in five of its last seven games, was outshot 40-27.

Each team finished 1-for-4 on the power play.

The Jr. Canadians play two games this weekend, while the Blackhawks are off until next Thursday when they host the Caledonia Corvairs.

Thorold is 0-2 versus Caledonia this season.

After visiting the Ancaster Avalanche today, Welland is home to the Buffalo Regals the following night.

In head-to-head play the Jr. Canadians are 1-1 versus Ancaster and 2-0 when they play Buffalo.

Last night’s action featured the Fort Erie Meteors, 7-13-1-3, at the St. Catharines Falcons, 17-4-0-2, and the Pelham Panthers, 8-131-2, visiting the Niagara Falls Canucks, 16-6-0-2.

Niagara Falls is 2-0 against Pelham so far this season and St. Catharines is versus 2-0 Fort Erie.

Last night’s results were unavailable at press time, but a summary is available online at stcatharinesstandard.ca and wellandtribune. ca.