Panthers start season 5-0
Six-day Northern Ontario road trip ‘huge’ for team bonding
The Pelham Panthers continue to be the top cats in the Golden Horseshoe Conference five games into the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League season.
Pelham doubled the visiting Thorold Blackhawks 4-2 Sunday to improve to a conference-and league-leading 5-0.
“We’re on track for the goals we set for ourselves early in the season, all the players, and everyone in the organization, is on the same page,” Panthers head coach Mark Barrick said of the team’s strong start.
He ranked “team chemistry” as the No. 1 strength.
“In the dressing room there are 22 guys that are pulling together for the same goal,” added Barrick, who is in his second year as Panthers bench boss.
He suggested a six-day road trip to Cochrane in northeastern Ontario for a preseason tournament helped “immeasurably” in bringing the players together.
“It was great for all involved,” Barrick said. “It was something we will continue to do as an organization.
“For us it was huge in bringing a lot of new faces together in a very short time.”
Two of Pelham’s five wins have been against the Lockport Regals, now 0-5, but Barrick won’t put an asterisk besides those four points. He said the league’s only U.S. is especially tough to play on the road.
“If any team goes in there an takes them lightly, they’re going to sorry,” he said. “You have to play a full 60 minutes, we had our hands full.”
On Sunday against Thorold, Noah Caperchione, with two; Michael Olszewski and Matt Ruigrok netted goals for the Panthers.
Nicholas Rubino and Sam VanderZalm replied for the Blackhawks, now 2-3 in league play.
Pelham outshot Thorold 35-17 and went 0-for-9 on the power play.
The Blackhawks were held scoreless on all five of their scoring opportunities with a man advantage.
Nicholas Kidd earned the victory in net for
Pelham, while Anthony Tremonte was tagged with the loss.
Thorold hosts the Fort Erie Meteors 7:07 p.m. Thursday. On the following day, the Panthers visit the Niagara Falls Canucks 7 p.m. at Gale Centre.
Jr. Canadians 5, Regals 2
At Welland, the Jr. Canadians defeated visiting Lockport to return to the win column.
Welland improved to 2-2 on goals from Chase Johnson, Anthony Vigliatore, Erik Nelson, Alex Page and Jacob Thomason.
Tim Lopez and Logan Hudson scored for the Regals, who fell to 0-5.
Shots on net were 46-26 Welland.
Lockport went 1-for-2 on the power play; Welland, 0-for-4.
Next action: for Lockport, 7 p.m. Wednesday, home to Niagara Falls; for Welland, 7 p.m. Friday, at the St. Catharines Falcons.
St. Catharines, 1-3, visited the Hamiton Kilty B’s, 3-1, in the lone game on the Golden Horseshoe schedule Monday.
Results were unavailable at press time but a summary is posted online at stcatharinesstandard.ca, niagarafallsreview.ca and wellandtribune.ca.
Bernd.Franke @niagaradailies.com 905-225-1624 | @TribSportsDesk