Golden Hawks’ goaltender Chad Walker makes 102 saves over weekend, but Caledon drops two hard-fought PJHL Games

December 21, 2023 · 0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

The Schomberg Cougars ventured onto the ice surface of the Mayfield Recreational Complex on Sunday afternoon with a goal in mind—literally.

The Cougars went goal-less in Orillia on Saturday night in a 3-0 loss to the Terriers and the Golden Hawks lost 3-2 in a hard-fought game in Huntsville on Friday night.

Both PJHL squads looked to get back in the win column on Sunday after tough losses, but Schomberg aimed to put some pucks past Golden Hawks’ goaltender Chad Walker who stymied the Cougars in a 2-2 OT draw in November.

The visiting Cougars accomplished their goals on both fronts.

Schomberg fired 57 shots at Walker, deposited five pucks past the netminding stalwart, and skated to a 5-1 victory over the Golden Hawks to improve its North Carruthers Division fourth-place record to 16-7-0-1. The loss on Sunday dropped seventh-place Caledon’s record to 9-15-1-2.

Walker was coming off another valiant performance when he stopped 50 of 53 shots in Caledon’s narrow loss to the Otters in which the Golden Hawks held a 1-0 lead going into the third period.

Christian Georgy, on assists from Patrick Polaczek and Jacob Altomare, got the Golden Hawks on the scoreboard at 12:01 of the second period and Walker kept the home side from scoring by repelling all 31 Otter shots he faced.

However, the Otters poured it on in the third period, firing 22 shots at Walker and yielding three goals from their offensive barrage.

Jacob Jennings, Tyler Dionne, and Aidan Hamelin lit the lamp for Huntsville over a span of twelve minutes to take a 3-1 lead.

Andrew Perrino’s unassisted goal with 90 seconds left the game drew the Golden Hawks to within one, but the tying goal was not forthcoming.

Walker was named the 3rd Star of the Game by PJHL Officials.

Although Walker gave up five goals on Sunday afternoon to the hard-charging Cougars, he was especially sharp in the first two periods as the Cougars peppered him with 44 shots in 40 minutes of play. All told, Walker sports a stellar save percentage of .921 which ranks 20th among active goaltenders in the 61-team league. The athletic goaltender should garner some North Carruthers MVP votes for his heroic performances for the Golden Hawks.

On Sunday afternoon, Schomberg’s Michael Termini scored two goals and Jordyn Palazzo earned three assists to pace the Cougars’ offence at Mayfield.

Termini described his game-winning goal at 3:43 of the second period as the product of line-mates working in unison: “We’ve been working on face-offs at practice. Jordyn and Zach worked the face-off perfectly. It takes all three guys to score a goal like that.”

The Cougars’ forward noted the importance of the road win versus Caledon: “It’s huge for us. We were on a good three-game win streak so we can’t let games like last night against Orillia get us down.”

Termini, who like many of the Cougars took a regular shift on the PK, was impressed by his team’s ability to neutralize the Golden Hawks’ power play which went 0 for 12 on Sunday.

“After a loss, we needed to want it more and it showed in our penalty killing this afternoon. We got to loose pucks. Again, these are systems we’re working on in practice. We stayed disciplined as a penalty-killing unit and stayed true to what we know as a team.”

The Cougars applied pressure from the opening faceoff and fired long shots at Walker, beating Caledon defenders to loose pucks, and caging the Golden Hawks in their own end.

Cougars’ defenseman Carter Longland pinched in from the left point, pushed a pass to Palazzo who found Termini in the slot whose wrist shot beat Walker to stake the visitors to a 1-0 lead five minutes into the game.

After Palazzo and Andrew Hrinco set up Termini’s second goal of the game three minutes into the middle frame, the playmaking duo were at it again as they created an outlet pass to Zach Gallow whose wrist shot beat Walker at 11:05.

The Cougars outshot the Golden Hawks 44-12 after two periods suggesting a wide margin in play, but Caledon got on the scoreboard thirty seconds into the third period when Liam Noonan ruined Cougar goaltender Anthony Paolini’s shutout bid and narrowed the visitors’ lead to 3-1.

However, Cougars’ forward Connor McGill snapped a shot from the slot to beat Walker two minutes later to restore Schomberg’s three-goal lead.

Exactly five minutes into the final frame, veteran Cougar Centre Anthony Nascimento jammed the puck past Walker during a goalmouth scramble to give his team a 5-1 lead and provide the margin of victory.

After Nascimento fired the visitors’ fifth goal, all Hell broke loose eighteen seconds later.

The referees and linemen worked diligently for the remaining fifteen minutes during which they called twenty-two penalties, including two misconducts and eight game misconducts which hollowed out both teams’ benches and restored order to the calamitous events committed in the cold conditions in Caledon.

The old adage “familiarity breeds contempt” will be put to the test when the Cougars host the Golden Hawks on Thursday, December 21 at the Trisan Centre at 7:30 p.m.

Caledon travels to Alliston on Friday, December 22 to take on the Hornets in their final game before the PJHL Christmas Break.