Predators notch third win in a row

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it was good enough for the Niagara Predators to get the job done. 

Led by Isaac Locker with a goal and two assists and another strong performance by goalie Zane Clausen, the Preds edged the Toronto Flyers 3-2 Sunday afternoon at Virgil’s Meridian Credit Union Arena. 

Locker and defenceman Nick Savoie both assisted on Luca Fernandez ‘s goal that opened the scoring 3:08 into the game. The Preds' leading scorer picked up his 25th goal of the season with a wrist shot from the face-off circle that beat Toronto goalie Lucas DiRisio.

About 10 minutes later, Georgy Kholmovsky, who spent much of his ice time throughout the afternoon wreaking havoc near DiRisio’s crease, picked up teammate Dylan Denning’s rebound and backhanded it into the Toronto net for a power play goal. Locker also recorded an assist on the play. 

The well-played first period by the Preds was followed by a sloppier second. Toronto’s Xavier Vanderpool was left alone in front of Clausen just long enough for the goalie to lose sight of Iaroslav Morozov, who unleashed a wrist shot from the point to get the Flyers on the board. 

But Locker responded before the period ended when Fernandez skated with the puck behind the Toronto net and fed a pass right to his line mate, who had moved in to the top of the crease. With Flyers’ defender Connor O’Shea on his back, the 18-year-old forward from Orillia put the Preds up 3-1 with his 11th of the season. 

Toronto’s Julian Ferreira narrowed the gap 8:25 into the third but the Preds' aggressive backchecking shut down any Flyers opportunities the rest of the way to escape with the 3-2 victory.

Though the Preds picked up two points with the win, head coach Kevin Taylor wondered after the game why his team didn’t bring the same fire and intensity they brought to last Saturday’s 9-2 decision against the same Flyers in Toronto. 

“I thought that we played down to them,” Taylor lamented, “we didn’t step it up. The first period was a really nice one to watch. The second period we were flat, and the third period, we didn’t really do anything to show them that we wanted to win. I don’t think the boys prepared properly for this game.”

With three straight victories and only four games remaining in their Greater Metro Junior A Hockey Leagues season, Taylor knows his team has to play better the next two weekends. 

“We have three extremely important games next week,” Taylor forecasted. “Two huge games against St. George. We see after tonight where we have to correct, and we’ll go into practice this week looking at things we have to fix and we’ll go from there.”

At 16-19-3 after Sunday’s game, the Predators hold down sixth place, only two points behind fifth place Tottenham and three behind the St. George Ravens, who are in fourth. Niagara faces St. George in a home game this Friday, then hit the road for games Saturday and Sunday at Tottenham and the Ravens respectively. They close out the regular season at home against first place North York Feb. 16, one final chance to finally upset the Renegades.

“One game at a time, that’s all that we have to do,” Taylor said. "It really doesn’t matter where we finish. If we end up sixth we play Durham. If we end up fourth or fifth we play St. George or Tottenham. We’re happy with any of those matchups.”

Prior to the start of the Sunday afternoon game league commissioner Ken Girard presented Niagara’s top goaltender, Zane Clausen, with a trophy as the South Division’s Goalie of the Year. He also acknowledged Clausen for placing second in the division for the Most Valuable Player Award. 

“I have had the chance to meet him a few times,” Girard told The Local after the presentation. “Great personality, great character. I can see why the South Division nominated him as MVP. Hands down he takes the best goalie award. He wins games for this team. It’s well deserved.”

It’s the second straight top goalie award for Clausen, who came to the Predators from the Bradford Bulls last January in exchange for St. Davids resident and team captain Max Bredin. 

With only 74 goals against him over 21 games, Clausen leads all of the league’s netminders with 20 or more games played this season in that metric. His save percentage of 0.911 is third best and his goals against average at 3.60 is fifth. 

“It’s nice to get some recognition,” Clausen said after the game. “I’m hoping that having these two trophies under my belt will show people that I’m serious about this game, that I’m serious that this is what I want to do. I want to take my career as far as I can and play professional hockey.”

Clausen was also honoured at the end of Sunday’s contest. He was chosen as the second star of the game, behind his teammate Locker. 

Game time this Friday is 7:30 p.m. at the Meridian Credit Union Arena.