Preds losing streak stretches to six games

A dismal home-and-home series last weekend against the North York Renegades has left the Niagara Predators reeling and in seventh place in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League’s South Division. 

Having forced the tough first-place Renegades into overtime before losing 3-2 back on Oct. 29, coach Kevin Taylor expected big things from his team when North York paid another visit to Virgil’s Meridian Credit Union Arena this past Friday. 

The game started out well enough, with Niagara skating to a 3-1 lead with seven minutes remaining in the second period. Gehrig Lindberg led the Predators’ early attack with two goals, while Luca Fernandez netted one on a crisp wrist shot during a power play.

But just 19 seconds later, the Renegades went on a tear. Nikolai Salov, Bryson Tillekeratne and Jake McKinstray all scored within 90 seconds to take the wind out of the Predators wings. 

North York added two more in the third to cruise to a 6-3 victory in a game that at one point seemed to be going the home team’s way, despite them being severely outplayed and even more severely outshot, 46-13. Niagara mustered just 6, 4 and 3 shots period by period. 

Following Friday’s loss, Taylor said the Preds took the lead by capitalizing on the few mistakes that the Renegades were making in the first half of the game. 

“That’s what I designed us to do,” he said. “Relax, take your time, you’re not going to win the game in five minutes, or in 10 minutes. You have to play 60 minutes. I told them to send in one guy to forecheck, but they started wanting to do their own thing again, and they don’t seem to want to listen.”

Taylor was openly frustrated with the way things fell apart for his team so quickly in the second period. 

 “Yes, they outplayed us,” he admitted. “But they outplayed us on the outside. Then, when they got those three g oals, they started taking advantage of us opening up the middle. I don’t care if we get outplayed on the outside,there’s no danger there. But we were losing guys on faceoffs, not picking up guys on faceoffs, not covering the point men. They scored five straight goals on us and we couldn’t stop the onslaught.”

A day later, Taylor was left looking for answers once again after the Renegades handed the Predators an embarrassing 8-1 shellacking at the Canlan Ice Sports Centre in York. 

Again, the Preds started out fairly strongly Saturday, with goaltender Kyle Magri making some big saves, including a stop on Joseph Martino on a two-on-one break. 

Tyler Gearing, a physical forward from the 2022-2023 Predators who just returned to the team this weekend, had a great chance on North York goalie Blake Bowler in the first period. But Bowler shut the door on him. And forward Georgy Kholmovsky missed the net completely on a short breakaway. 

During a stretch of four-on-four play, McKinstray put the Renegades on the board, beating Magri with a wrist shot to his glove side. But Niagara, despite being outshot 23-9 in the first period, escaped trailing just 1-0. 

But for the second straight game the Renegades sounded the death knell on the Predators hopes in the second period. Martino scored twice for North York while Evan Gupta, Christopher Rende, Maurizio Reale and Renegades captain Jedidja Somersall all added singles. Though it was a relief when Kholmovsky finally broke rookie Bowler’s shutout with 1:31 remaining in the period, the second intermission began with the Preds trailing 7-1. 

Gupta added his second goal of the game about six minutes into the third and the Preds were sent home with their sixth loss in a row, this one an embarrassment. 

The 4-9-1 Predators host the fourth-place 8-8-0 Tottenham Railers Friday night at the Meridian Credit Union Arena, then travel to Toronto to take on the last place 3-15-1 Flyers Saturday. 

“It’s a good time to get back into the win column,” Taylor said Tuesday afternoon. “Our problem is not talent and it’s not coaching. They’re not executing. And we have to figure out why not. In practice, we run our systems well, we’re on spot. But when it comes to the games, they’re not putting in the effort.

He pointed out that before this losing streak his team was at .500 with a record of 4-4-0 and feeling on top of the world. 

“We were happy, and within these last five games especially things have just gone south,” he lamented. “It’s a lot easier to find out what’s wrong, and to point fingers. And that’s what people are starting to do. This is the time when accountability is number one. The accountability is on them.”

Declan Fogarty, one of the Predators’ top three scorers from last season, is set to return to the lineup for the first time this weekend. The recent addition of Gearing, who plays a physical brand of hockey despite his diminutive size, should add some grit, and new blueline acquisition Rujil Brar is starting to find his groove with the team after four games. 

Taylor says to turn things around, he needs to see his entire team stick with the game plan Friday and Saturday. 

“We don’t teach these guys to skate with the puck all by themselves down to the corner to try to blind pass it
through the slot,” he said. “So, where’s it coming from? We’re not teaching them the things that they’re doing
during the games.”

And they’ll need better results this weekend before facing another tough test a week later, with games against the second place Durham Roadrunners and yet another meeting on the road against North York. 

Game time Friday night is 7:30 p.m.