Guelph / Waterloo set to do battle

from: http://www.guelphmercury.com

Canes, Siskins square off on Wednesday

March 02, 2010, Mercury staff, sports@guelphmercury.com

GUELPH — The Guelph Hurricanes and Waterloo Siskins begin their Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Midwestern Conference quarter-final playoff series Wednesday at Waterloo.

The Hurricanes (16-29-6) finished seventh in the conference while the Siskins (43-7-1) were second, one point behind the first-placed Brantford Golden Eagles (42-5-4).

The series shifts to the Sleeman Centre for Game 2 March 6. Game time is 7:30 p.m., the same as the opening game.

Waterloo will host Game 3 March 7 beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Game 4 switches back to Victoria Road Arena March 9 starting at 7:30 p.m.

The fifth, sixth and seventh games of the series will be played only if necessary.

If needed the fifth (March 10, 7:30 p.m.) and seventh (March 14, 1:30 p.m.) will be played in Waterloo while the sixth (March 13, 7:30 p.m.) would go at the Sleeman Centre.

Pegrum scored vs. Waterloo earlier in the season

The Hurricanes and Siskins met seven times during the regular season with Waterloo winning six of the games. The Hurricanes won 4-1 at Waterloo Jan. 17 in the game that saw Guelph goaltender Drew Pegrum score an empty-net goal.

In other games in Waterloo, the host Siskins won 5-4 Oct. 2, 8-0 Nov. 20 and 5-2 Jan. 8. In Guelph, the visitors won 5-3 Nov. 7, 4-2 Nov. 26 and 5-1 Feb. 6.

Despite their seventh-place finish, the Hurricanes enter the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the conference. They claimed eight points in their final six games as they had three wins, a loss and two setbacks in overtime.

Layoff work pays off for the Hurricanes

 from http://www.guelphmercury.com by Rob Massey

GUELPH – Work the Guelph Hurricanes did on both their power play and penalty killing during their two-week layoff paid off Saturday night.

The Hurricanes scored a pair of power-play goals in edging the Welland Canadians 4-3 in a shootout in Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Sleeman Centre. Guelph went 2-for-8 on the power play while Welland was 1-for-6.

“We took advantage of that practice time and it showed,” Guelph head coach Jim MacEachern said. “We took advantage of it. We worked our special teams. . . (and) we created more opportunities because of it.”

Kudla nets the Shootout winner

“We got to work on a new power play and a new penalty kill so I think it helped out in that aspect,” Martin Kudla said. The fifth shooter for the Hurricanes, he fittingly scored the overtime winner after being robbed of the opportunity of getting it late in the third period by the quick stick of Welland keeper Kari Rikkonen. “But it’s hard to take that time off with no games and then come back and play a game.”

On the shootout winner, Kudla faked a wrist shot before going to his backhander for the goal.

“I do that move a lot in practice so I just thought I’d go with it,” he said. “It works usually, so I thought I’d go with it right from the start.”

The win allowed the Hurricanes to climb out of their tie with the Kitchener Dutchmen for seventh in the eight-team Midwestern Conference.

Tyson Theaker, one of the few Hurricanes who can grow a beard, scored twice in regulation time and once in the shootout while Zach Dion had the other regulation-time goal for the Hurricanes. Theaker’s linemates Mike McFarlane and Nic MacEachern assisted on both of his goals while Luca Penzo also had an assist.

“I haven’t got a goal in a while so it felt good to get a couple,” Theaker said. “The puck was bouncing, the line was working hard.”

check out the rest of the article here: http://news.guelphmercury.com/Sports/article/577546

Young Hurricanes battle adversity to sit 7th at the 1/4 mark of the season

With 1/4 of the  Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League season finished, the young Guelph Hurricanes team (who survived an injury to their starting goaltender and a coaching/GM change) currently sits 7th in the MidWest Division (an 19th in the GOJHL) with 9 points.

More stability behind the bench and in net, along with the experience the rookies have received so far and their never quit attitude, would lead me to believe that they can at least dupicate 9 points in the next quarter of the season. (All 13 games are against in-division teams)

The current standings are below:

Standings

GOJHL 2009/2010

Western Conference
Team	GP	W	L	PTS	WPCT
London	11	9	1	19	.864
Strathroy	10	8	2	16	.800
LaSalle	10	7	3	14	.700
Sarnia	13	5	4	14	.538
Chatham	11	6	5	12	.545
St. Thomas	10	5	4	11	.550
St. Marys	10	5	4	11	.550
Leamington	13	1	11	3	.115
Lambton Shores	10	1	9	2	.100
Midwestern Conference
Team	GP	W	L	PTS	WPCT
Stratford	13	11	2	22	.846
Brantford	11	9	2	18	.818
Cambridge	11	8	2	17	.773
Waterloo	11	8	3	16	.727
Listowel	11	6	5	12	.545
Elmira	11	5	4	12	.545
Guelph	13	4	8	9	.346
Kitchener	12	2	9	5	.208
Golden Horseshoe Conference
Team	GP	W	L	PTS	WPCT
St. Catharines	12	9	2	19	.792
Niagara Falls	10	8	2	16	.800
Thorold	10	6	2	14	.700
Wheatfield	11	4	5	10	.455
Port Colborne	12	4	7	9	.375
Welland	11	3	7	7	.318
Stoney Creek	8	2	5	5	.313
Fort Erie	11	2	8	5	.227

Guelph’s next home game is this Saturday Oct. 17th at the Sleeman Centre where the Hurricanes host the Kitchener Dutchmen in the first game of a home-and-home series. Game time is 7:30pm.