By: Ron Valentine
PICKERING PANTHERS (3) v. NEWMARKET HURRICANES (4)
The final two teams that will compete for the championship of the Eastern Conference have now been decided after two hard fought semifinal series. The Pickering Panthers, after sweeping the Wellington Dukes in the minimum four games, got past the Stouffville Spirit in the semifinal game by a 4-2 count. The Newmarket Hurricanes after moving past the Haliburton County Huskies in 5 games, then beat the Trenton Golden Hawks in 6 to advance to the Final. A close series should be expected as both teams won 35 of 56 games played in the regular season. Newmarket finished in fourth spot with 73 points, two behind Pickering. The Panthers scored 232 goals with a goal differential of +49 and the Hurricanes had 226 with a +67.
In meetings between the two clubs in the regular season it took double overtime in their first game in Pickering for the Hurricanes to post the 6-5 win courtesy of a Simon Wang goal. In Newmarket in game two the Hurricanes doubled up on the Panthers with a 4-2 victory. Game three, held in Pickering, saw Keegan Gillen score the winner in a 3-2 overtime final in favour of the visitors and in the last meeting, the Hurricanes took a 7-2 home win to go 4 for 4 on the season against the Panthers.
Leading scorers for the Panthers in the post-season to date are Matt Indovina who has posted 5 goals and 5 assists for 10 points, Captain Charlie Key and Indovina’s former teammate in Oakville, blueliner Marco Costante, have 8 points. Kyle Kavc has 7 points while Gabriel Ciarallo and blueliner Sam Ethier have six. Ciarallo and Jake Mallory have 2 game winning goals each. Anthony Sciere has been spectacular in net, starting all 10 games, posting a 1.31 goals against average, a .958 save percentage and 2 shutouts.
Pickering’s powerplay is operating at just an 8.9% success rate with 5 goals on 56 opportunities while Newmarket’s is slightly better at 13.9%. On the penalty kill the Panthers come in at 83% and the Hurricanes at 80%.
The Panthers made some prominent additions this season including Indovina and defenceman Devon Ferroni from Trenton, Costante from Niagara Falls, Ciarallo from Milton, Mallory from King, Kavc from Wellington, Peter Smith from Stouffville and Angelo Protopapas from the CCHL’s Renfrew Wolves. They have 6 players in their last year of junior hockey eligibility.
Head coach Connor Armour, in his first term behind the Panthers’ bench and voted this season as “Coach of the Year” in the OJHL following three campaigns in the same post with the Cobourg Cougars, his playing alumnus, knows what’s ahead for his club: “Newmarket is a highly skilled team. They are extremely dangerous, especially off the rush but we are ready for them and excited for the series to get underway.”
For the Newmarket Hurricanes, Simon Wang, who had a 60-point regular season, including 29 goals, has 4 goals and 13 points in the playoffs so far good enough for an eighth place tie overall. Chase Yanni has a team-leading 7 goals and 12 points with Connor Haynes posting 4 goals, 3 being game winners, and 12 points. Yanni and Haynes are tied for tenth spot overall in OJHL playoff scoring. Two players have 10, Nathan Phillips with 3 goals and Joseph Macchione, all assists. In goal Carter Froggett, who has played all but 16 minutes of the post-season, has a 2.31 GAA and a save % of .928.
At the trading deadline the club obtained Froggett and forward Matthew Babiy from the Milton Menace as well as goalie Alex Armellin from the Oakville Blades along with blueliner Joseph Febrillet plus Owen Bruining from the King Rebellion and Jesse Venturo from the St Michaels’ Buzzers. Lucas Teixeira returned to the team (the Toronto Jr Canadiens of last season) from the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. The club has 8 players on their playoff roster in their last year in the League.
Newmarket Head Coach David DeMarinis: “Trenton, the defending Buckland Cup champions, were a difficult opponent, they finished first in the Conference for a reason and they made us earn everything. I thought our group of guys stayed composed and stuck to our identity throughout the series. Now we reset for Pickering. We have a lot of respect for them, but we like where we are now and we are looking forward to the games.”
Hurricanes’ captain Joel Taylor on his third period game winning goal in game 6 against Trenton: “We were playing 4- on- 4 at the time so I had a bit more room. I moved up the ice looking for options and when it came back to me I just took the shot and beat the goalie on the 5-hole. It was very exciting, my first goal of the playoffs this year. We got a total team effort again led by our last year players, we really wanted this win and it showed. The four wins we got against the Panthers don’t really mean that much, they have some veteran players who would like to go out on a winning note as would we so it’ll be close for sure. We’re getting more and more fans every game and this is great for us.”
There will not be too much travelling for the two teams in this series with the distance from the Chestnut Hill Developments Complex in Pickering to the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex in Newmarket is just over 60 kilometers. The fans at both arenas will be treated to a top-notch series.
