Caledon’s Roenik Mahal fires two goals to cue 4-3 comeback victory over the Port Perry Lumberjacks in PJHL action

By Jim Stewart

The Caledon Golden Hawks bounced back from a narrow 4-2 loss in Schomberg on Thursday night by defeating the Lumberjacks 4-3 in Port Perry on Sunday afternoon.  

Roenik Mahal paced the Golden Hawks offence versus Port Perry with two goals.  Josiah Dunkley opened the scoring against the Lumberjacks and Anton Smirov closed the scoring by firing the game winner with 62 seconds left to complete Caledon's comeback victory.

On Thursday night, the Golden Hawks came out flying in Schomberg. Liam Noonan took a pass from Josiah Dunkley and beat Cougars netminder Anthony Paolini 31 seconds into the game to send a shock wave through the Trisan Centre. Dunkley, hot off a preseason hat trick against Midland, put Caledon up 2-0 before five minutes had elapsed.

Grady Duggan pulled the home side within one at 16:09 of the opening frame, but the Golden Hawks held their precarious 2-1 lead for over 50 minutes, despite being outshot 16-3 in second period. The heroic play of Caledon goaltender Johnnie Krush helped the Golden Hawks protect their slim margin.  Krush made two breakaway saves on speedy Jordyn Palazzo to open and close the second period and the Caledon goaltender turned aside 45 of the 48 shots he faced to earn Second Star honors as selected by PJHL staff. 

Despite Krush's acrobatic efforts, Duggan tallied his second goal of the game at 10:30 to tie the contest, Luke Szabo put the Cougars ahead 3-2 at 12:27 when he banged a rebound behind Krush, and Mark Sifri slid the puck into the empty net with 1:51 on the clock after Krush had been lifted for an extra attacker with 2:03 left to play.

On Sunday afternoon in Port Perry, the Golden Hawks flipped Thursday's script and created a third period comeback victory of their own versus the Lumberjacks.

Mahal's marker at 16:59 in the final frame tied the game and Smirov completed the comeback for Caledon with an unassisted goal at 18:58 to pull out the much-needed road victory for the Golden Hawks.

Caledon continues its road trip on Thursday when they take on the Eagles in Clarington.  The Golden Hawks host the Schomberg Cougars in their regular season home opener on Sunday, September 22 at 2:30 PM at the Mayfield Recreation Complex.

OJHL Update

The Caledon Junior ‘A' Admirals earned their first win of the season by defeating the Mississauga Chargers 5-3 at the Mayfield Recreation Complex on Sunday afternoon. It was a much-needed bounce-back victory by the Admirals who fell 9-0 on home ice on Thursday night to the CJHL champion and OJHL powerhouse Collingwood Blues. 

On Sunday afternoon, Lucas Tsaparis gave the Chargers a 1-0 lead at 11:01 of the opening period, but the Admirals roared back with five consecutive goals to take a commanding 5-1 lead at 15:22 of the middle frame.  Henry Brady, Clarence Allain, Braeden Van Gelder, Owen O'Grady, and Cam Lang contributed one goal each to the 20-minute onslaught that paced Caledon's offense and turned the game in the Admirals' favor. 

Caledon goaltender Calem Yorke earned the W, turning aside 33 of the 36 shots fired by the Chargers.

The Admirals (1-3-0-0) host the Georgetown Raiders (0-1-1-1) at the Mayfield Recreation Complex on Thursday, September 19.  Puck drop will be 7:30 p.m.