Canucks, Falcons continue torrid pace

No need replacing the thermometer, junior B hockey’s hottest teams really aren’t showing signs of cooling down.

Niagara Falls Canucks, 22-30-1, and St. Catharines Falcons, 17-3-0-1, are top two in the Golden Horseshoe Conference — as well as the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League — heading into the third full month of the regular season based on winning percentage.

Indeed, St. Catharines would be pacing both the Midwestern and Western conferences if it played in those divisions.

Midwest-leading Waterloo, 16-0-0-2, trails the Falcons by a point but has played three more games. London, best in the west at 19-4-0-1, also has 39 points, like St. Catharines, but the Falcons, with three games in hand, have a higher winning percentage, .833 to .813.

St. Catharines visited Pelham Panthers, 13-100-2, Sunday hoping to sweep a home-andhome weekend series. Friday night at Jack Gatecliff Arena, the Falcons tamed the Panthers 4-3 in overtime to extend their winning streak to seven games and earn at least a point for the 17th game in a row.

Niagara Falls doubled the Blackhawks 2-1 in overtime Saturday in Thorold, the Canuck’s second victory in as many days.

They beat the visiting Hamilton Kilty B’s 4-3 the night before at Gale Centre.

Welland Jr. Canadians, 6-150-2, hosted Thorold, 10-11-1-1, in other Golden Horseshoe action Sunday.

Results of Sunday games were not available at press time, but summaries of the games are posted online at stcatharinesstandard.ca, niagarafallsreview.ca, wellandtribune.ca.

Monday’s schedule has Hamilton, 15-8-0-1, home to the Blackhawks for a 7 p.m. faceoff at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena.

Canucks 2, Blackhawks 1 OT

At Thorold, David D’Agostino ended the drama in a low-scoring — and low-shooting — game with the winning goal 2:53 into the first overtime for visiting Niagara Falls.

Shots of net in the battle between stingy defences were 24-20 in favour of the Canucks.

All the scoring in regulation happened in the second period. Justin Schneider put Niagara Falls on the board 3:47 in. Nick Gidney netted the equalizer with nine seconds left in the frame.

Neither team scored on the

power play: Canucks, 0-for-3; Blackhawks, 0-for-5.

Niagara Falls improved to 4-0 in league play versus Thorold.

Meteors 5, Regals 2

At Fort Erie, Jacob Hearne made 28 saves backstopping the hosts to their fourth win over Lockport in as many games this

season.

Luca Mazzo, Ethan Culp, Marco Lariccia, Evan Miller, on the power; Brady Lee, into the empty net; scored for the Meteors, 8-160-1.

Replying for the Regals, 3-19-1, were Nolan Slachetka, Erich Thur, power play.

Fort Erie outshot Lockport 39-30 and finished Saturday night’s game at the Leisureplex. The Regals were 1-for-6 with a man advantage.

Canucks 4, Kilty B’s 3

At Niagara Falls, the host Canucks evened their season series with Hamilton at two wins apiece with a come-from-behind victory.

Niagara Falls scored three answered goals and won for the seventh time in eight games.

Ben Evans, with two goals; Mitch Mendonca, Justin Kyle scored for the Canucks in the Friday night junior B game at Gale Centre. Attendance was

listed as 489.

Nick Duarte, Nick Cordeiro, T.J. Hughes replied for the Kilty B’s, 15-8-0-1.

Shots on net: Niagara Falls 34, Hamilton 21; power-play efficiency: Canucks 2-for-8, Hamilton 0-for-9.

Falcons 4, Panthers 3 OT

At St. Catharines, Tanner Brown’s goal 1:07 into the first overtime period and the hosts continued their dominance over

Pelham improving to 3-0.

Kyle West, Xavier Drummond, Noah Blakely scored in regulation for the Falcons, who outshot the Panthers 44-19 went 1-for-5 on the power play.

Scoring for the Panthers were Dylan Biggar, shorthanded; Jackson Barrett, Thomas Young. Pelham went 1-for-6 on the power play.