Panthers, Canucks skate into win column

Matt Ruigrok scored a shorthanded goal and added two assists as the Pelham Panthers doubled the visiting Fort Erie Meteors 4-2 in Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League action Sunday.

Pelham returned to win column with its third victory in four games to improve to 12-7-0-1 in league play.

At 12-3-0-1, the St. Catharines Falcons also have 25 points, but they have four games in hand.

Michael Marchesan, Brodie Thoms and Adam Scholz, on the power play, also scored for the Panthers who skated past Fort Erie for the third time in as many games this season.

Providing the offence for the Meteors, 4-13-0-1; were Cail Cirillo, with a shorthanded goal, and Logan Warner, with a power-play marker.

Pelham outshot Fort Erie 38-32 in a penalty-filled contest that had the Panthers serving 76 minutes on 19 infractions and the Meteors 42 on 13 calls.

Fort Erie went 1-for-13 with a man advantage; Pelham, 1-for-9.

Thursday’s Golden Horseshoe Conference schedule has the Panthers visiting Thorold for a 7:07 p.m. faceoff versus the Blackhawks, 6-10-1-0.

Next action for the Meteors is a home game Saturday against the Blackhawks.

Canucks 8,

Jr. Canadians 1

At Welland, former Falcon Carson Eden had two goals and an assist in his second game in the Niagara Falls lineup helping the Canucks improve to 3-0 against the Jr. Canadians.

Andrew Bruno, David D’Agostino, Garrett Downie, Mitch Mendonca, Justin Randhawa and Matthew Riva rounded out the scoring for conference-leading Niagara Falls, 16-2-0-1.

Michael Arch found the back of the net for the hosts spoiling Zach Moore’s bid for his first shutout of the season with five seconds remaining in the final period.

Welland, 5-13, lost its third in a row and was outshot 40-28.

Power-play efficiency: Canucks, 3-for-7; Jr. Canadians, 0-for-7.

Welland plays the Lockport Regals, 2-14-1-0; Wednesday. Niagara Falls is home to Lockport on Friday night.

Lone action Monday night in the Golden Horseshoe has St. Catharines visiting the Hamilton Kilty B’s in a battle for second place in the eight-team conference.

Hamilton, 13-4, leads St. Catharines by a point, but the Falcons have a game in hand.

Tops in the conference — and in the 25-team league — are the Canucks. They lead the Kilty B’s by seven points heading into the week with a 16-2-0-1 record.

Niagara Falls is 3-0 against St. Catharines and 1-1 versus Hamilton so far this season.