R’Hawks come back to win

The Niagara RiverHawks got a jump start on Hometown Hockey weekend in Niagara Falls with a 4 -3 win over the Simcoe Shamrocks Thursday night at the Gale Centre.

The Shamrocks opened the scoring in the Provincial Junior Hockey League regular-season game at 6:46 on a goal from Devin Schneider on the power play

Niagara answered with three straight goals. Lakeshore Catholic graduate Frankie Franck got the Riverhawks on the board to tie the game at 9:07 from Mason Durant and Cesare Caldaroni each earning an assist.

Nick Volpatti netted his first junior goal at 10:02 from Jamie Watt and Alex Page before Franck added his second of the game at 18:47 unassisted.

The RiverHawks seemed sluggish in the second period and watched as Simcoe scored two goals to tie the game at 3-3 after 40 minutes of play.

Caldaronii scored what would turn out to be the game winner at 16:43 on the power play. Riley Hollowell and Franck received assists on the play.

“It wasn’t one of our best games that’s for sure, but we’ll take the two points” RiverHawks head coach Rob DeGiuli said. “We had a decent first period, but we were not very good in the second and allowed them to get back in the game.

“It was a sloppy game for us. We need to be better”

The RiverHawks, 3-2-0-1; travelled to Grimsby last night to take on the Peach Kings, 4-2. On Sunday they will be in a Port Dover for a 2 p.m. matinee against the Sailors.

“It’s a big weekend for us, we need to pick up some points,” DeGiuli said.

The RiverHawks return home next Thursday night when they host the Hagersville Hawks for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop at Gale Centre.

’Hawk highlights: Niagara outshot outshot Simcoe 41-36 with Gabe Maskaluk making 33 saves in the RiverHawk net to earn his first win between the pipes in junior hockey … Simcoe underwent a full rebranding right before the start of the season last month changing the team’s nickname to Shamrocks from Storm. Uniform colours are green and gold.