Durham Tops Barrie

The Durham Turfdogs hosted the Blizzard in a Saturday afternoon contest to open the GM Centre for the 2014 season.

Durham was led my Mack O’Brien with 4 goals, Nick Diachenko with two goals and three helpers, and Scott Defrancesco with 2 goals and 2 assists.  Barrie was led by Caleb Wiles with 5 points (3+2) and Jonas Derks with six points (1+5).

The first quarter was close up until about 5 minutes left when the Blizzard took off on a five goal streak. Durham would have two goals in the first quarter, both of which came from Defrancesco. At the end of one Barrie led 6-2.

Into the second, Durham had enough of Barrie as they started what would be an 8 goal streak. Mack O’Brien would put in a hat trick within the second quarter, with two of the goals a part of Durham’s streak. Barrie trailed 11-8 at the end of the first half.

Starting off the second half early, O’Brien would go for the five hole and give a little bit more cushion onto the lead. Wiles not feeling it as he put in his third of the game to seal his hat trick, and cut the lead back down to 3. The Turfdogs ended the third quarter with a goal from Diachenako with just 37 seconds left to give themselves a nice 4 point lead heading into the final frame.

Starting off the fourth the Turfdogs would open with two goals before the Blizzard could do anything. An attempted comeback from Barrie wouldn’t prevail as they couldn’t get within less than 4.

Durham ended their home-opener on a high note with a final goal from Jordan Robertson, to top the Blizzard 18-13. Barrie now 0-2 heads home to take on the Lock Monsters for the second time this season.

Niagara Comes Back to Win Home Opener

The Niagara Lock Monsters kicked off their season with an 16-8 win over the Barrie Blizzard in a Saturday afternoon match up at Seymour Hannah Arena.

In the first quarter, the Blizzard would take control by scoring the opening goal as Geoff McNulty found the back of the net, assisted by Caleb Wiles and Spencer Janes.  It would take Niagara almost ten minutes to get on the board as Corey Fowler took off to put one in unassisted and tie the game at 1.  Barely 20 seconds later, the Blizzard answered Fowler’s goal to start a three goal streak.  Jon Arnold of the Lock Monster’s would toss in a pair of goals to end the first with Barrie leading 4-3.

Barrie opened the scoring in the second quarter with a quick goal by Tyler Gibbons.  From there, Niagara would go on a solid goal streak that would stretch from the second quarter and into the third. The streak would include a hat trick from Andrew Potter; two of the three goals from Potter would come on penalty shots.

Throughout the third quarter, frustrations began to come out from both sides with Barrie unable to capitalize on their power play opportunities.  Niagara shut out Barrie in the third quarter and led 14-5 going into the final frame.

In the fourth, Barrie’s Tyler Gibbons found the back of the net and put an end to the streak for Niagara. Niagara’s Travis Gibbons would put in his second of the game to answer, and later added third to seal a hat trick.  In the end, three goals in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough for Barrie to come back and Niagara went on to a 16-8 victory.

Box Score available here

Niagara’s next game comes today at 2 p.m. as they take on the Durham Turfdogs at Seymour Hannah Arena.