Jan 25, 2019 | jdisher | 991 views
Rangers Break Hockey Protocol, Get Taken Behind The Woodshed By Tigers
Last night prior to lining up for the pre-game handshake the Glanbrook Rangers broke with hockey protocol and skated into the Welland goal crease and banged their sticks on the ice in defiance. They are likely regretting that decision this morning after Welland took them to the woodshed in a 9-5 rout in Niagara District Atom Doherty action.
The Tigers skated in off the opening draw and Tanner Cutler deposited his first of three goals into the Glanbrook net only twenty-three seconds into the game and Welland stretched out to a 5-0 lead after two periods before the referees intervened and sent the Tigers on a steady parade to the penalty box during the third period. Glanbrook took full advantage of their man-advantage, scoring three times with the extra attacker and once while short-handed to make the final score more respectable than the gameplay dictated
In the end Welland's sixteen minutes in penalties to Glanbrook's six could not balance out the scoreboard in favour of the visitors and the Tigers skated off with their thirteenth consecutive win in league play. Colby Franchetti with a hat-trick, Brennen Hagar with a pair of goals and Carter Kelly with a single tally rounded out the Tigers' offence. Matteo Mete chipped in three helpers, Jonah Bello assisted twice and Ashlyn Armstrong, Franchetti, and Cutler were also credited with assists from the officials, who dispensed more penalties than secondary assists.
Cameron Schweitzer, Marcus Perri, Sebastian Lucia, Kane Bazinet and Brett Macqueen replied for the Rangers, who dropped their third straight decision.
Welland, at 19-2-3, currently leads the division with 41 points and will look to secure first place overall with a victory against Stoney Creek on Saturday at Valley Park Arena at 4:30pm. The Warriors, at 12-12-3 will be playing their final regular season game and looking to snap a three game losing skid. Stoney Creek took the first meeting between the teams 5-1 in November and Welland won the rematch 6-3 in December.
Next week Welland will host Garden City Monday night at 6:50pm before travelling to Virgil on Tuesday to square up with the second-place Wolves at 7:10pm.
Glanbrook will be hosting the Niagara Major Atom A OMHA Playdowns tournament beginning on Friday February 1st which will see Welland, Grimsby, Glanbrook, Stoney Creek, Niagara Falls and Garden City fighting to represent our area in the OMHA Quarterfinals against the representative from the Bluewater area. Niagara is one of the lone areas in Ontario to use the tournament format to determine their qualifier, with nearly everyone else opting for several sets of series. One improvement this season is that the two teams advancing to Sunday's Championship round will compete in a four-point series to determine who advances from Niagara instead of the one game winner-takes-all format that has been used in the past several seasons.