Canadiens advance to PJHL championship
Lakeshore finishes off New Hamburg to set up showdown with Clarington
The Lakeshore Canadiens remain dominant at home.
Lakeshore reeled of its eighth straight home win on Saturday by rallying from a two-goal deficit to beat the New Hamburg Firebirds 5-2 at the Atlas Tube Centre.
The Canadiens won the best-ofseven Provincial Junior Hockey League semifinal series 4-2. Lakeshore faces the Clarington Eagles in the Schmalz Cup final. Clarington beat the Hanover Barons 4-2 on Sunday to take that series 4-2.
“They were a good team,” Canadiens head coach Anthony Iaquinta said of the Firebirds. “They had a couple of players that, as the series went on, got better and better. Definitely a tough matchup, but home ice was huge.”
New Hamburg, which forced Game 6 with a 4-2 win at home on Friday in Game 5, jumped to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes on Saturday.
“Our first period didn't go as planned, but credit to our guys,” said Iaquinta, who guided the Canadiens to the Schmalz Cup title in 2022. “It's a resilient group that found a way to rally and took over in the second period.”
Lakeshore was outshot 14-6 in the first period, but held a 20-10 advantage over the final two periods and scored the game's final five goals to improved to 12-1 at home in the playoffs. The lone loss came to the Essex 73's in the series opener of the Bill Stobbs Division final.
Trevor Larue had three goals and an assist in Saturday's series clincher against New Hamburg and finished with six goals and 10 points in six games.
“He's getting back,” Iaquinta said of Larue. “He was hurting for a bit and now he's starting to get his jump back. He has the ability to change a game and he did that in a few games this series.”
Julian Gignac had a goal and three points while Eric Bison had the other goal for the Canadiens, who got a 22-save performance from goalie Boe Piroski.
GREENTREE STRIKES GOLD
Windsor Spitfires captain Liam Greentree won gold on Sunday with Canada at the World Under-18 Hockey Championship in Finland.
Canada rallied for a 6-4 win over the United States in the gold-medal final. That left Canada as the lone unbeaten team in seven tournament games. Greentree had two goals and four points in seven tournament games and scored the opening goal in Saturday's 5-4 semifinal win over Sweden to advance to the final.
CLIPPERS DROP PAIR
The Windsor Clippers dropped back-to-back games at home in Ontario Lacrosse Association junior B action.
The Clippers fell 11-6 to the St. Catharines Athletics on Sunday at Forest Glade Arena a day after dropping a 13-8 decision to the Owen Sound North Stars at home on Saturday.
On Sunday, Gage Soulliere, Jacob Cianci and Logan Gough had the Clippers (1-3-0) up 3-1 early before the Athletics (4-1-1) rallied for the win. Soulliere and Gough each finished with a pair of goals while Vance Dalpe had the other goal for Windsor.
On Saturday, Mason Myers-whiteye and Dalpe each scored two goals for Windsor. Soulliere, Dalpe, Quinn Brennan, Cianci and Kane Murphy added single goals.
LEAGUE1 ONTARIO
Windsor City FC got its first win of the season in League1 Ontario men's soccer action on Saturday while Tecumseh United FC lost on the road in women's play on Sunday.
Gershom Dupuy and Khalifa Ihmouda each scored a pair of goals as Windsor City FC beat North Mississauga FC 5-2 at Acumen Stadium. Dylan Satto had the other goal for Windsor (1-1-0), which jumped to a 2-0 lead just six minutes into the game against North Mississauga FC (0-1-1).
Aislynn Essibrah scored in the 40th minute to pull Tecumseh City FC (1-1-0) even, but Waterloo (20-0) got the victory that to a goal in the 72nd minute.