It might be a modest one, but it’s still a winning streak.

 

Goals from affiliates Jake Young and Kiefer Vincent, in their Junior B debut, sandwiched a pair from Gio Falsetti and a single from Ben Minkus and gave the Perth Blue Wings their second win in succession, a 5-2 win over the struggling Renfrew Timberwolves. The win pulled the last place Blue Wings to within one point of Renfrew, now losers of eight in a row.

 

The Blue Wings will look to build on the streak this weekend , plus , start the second half of the season in fine fashion when they host Arnprior for a rare Saturday evening game and then welcome the ever unpopular Gatineau Mustangs Sunday afternoon

 

“ We finally won a game we deserved to win said Coach Jeff Snow “ lamenting the all too many one goal defeats over the first half of the schedule. “ It was an honest effort “ Snow added, pointing out a defence that has allowed just three goals during the two wins while the power play has clicked for six in the past three.

 

The game started slowly with the combatants showing why their sit fifth and sixth respectively. Neither could muster anything offensively until Young took Nevin Sullivan’s dump in off the endboards and slipped the puck past an out of position Robin Billingsham. The only goal of the first period came with 3.04 left.

 

Each team scored with a man advantage during a penalty filled second. The Blue Wings were hit with nine minors, two majors and four misconducts while the visitors picked up eight minors and the same amount of fighting majors and misconducts.

 

Falsetti skated into the slot before ripping a shot over Billingsham shoulder at 4.23 and Josh Ouellette replied with a similar shot    at 11.48

 

The third was a complete opposite, only one minor called, that to Renfrew.

 

Falsetti got his second at 4.35 with a bullet from the point after a Liam McKenna face off win and Minkus made it 4-1, during the sole Timberwolves penalty, when he pounced on the rebound of McKenna’s shot.

 

Vincent and Renfrew’s Dylon Wisotzki traded markers in the final four minutes.

 

Perth held a 40-26 edge in shots.

 

.  Wing Tips

…Snow expects Jeff Kipping back into the lineup this weekend. Steven Peca and Zach MacMillan will also return after sitting out one game suspension. Cameron Robichaud   missed the game due to personal reasons.

 

…Robbie Dier came up big   on Andrew Marquis when the speedy Timberwolve broke in alone twice while killing a penalty, once with Renfrew two men short.

 

…Josh MacMillan and Reed Broadhurst engaged in a spirited tussle late in the second period. Give MacMillan the decision

 

…Minkus now leads the team in scoring with seven goals and ten assists.  McKenna added a helper on the Minkus goal as did Adam Emmerton who also was in on Falsetti’s first.

 

…. Saturday’s game starts at 7.30 pm while Sunday’s is a 1.30 pm face off.

It’s about time!

 

Winless since a 4-0 blanking of the Gatineau Mustangs October 10, the Perth Blue Wings finally savoured success Sunday night in Shawville when two goals from Cameron Robichaud and one from Brandon Preece carried Perth to a 3-1 decision over the host Pontiacs.  The win, only their third of the season, put the end to a ten game stretch that saw the Blue Wings garner just one point. It came during   a 5-5 stalemate in Stittsville October 15.

 

“ It was the  most complete effort of the year “ said Coach Jeff Snow   of his team that took a 2-1 lead into the third period, added one more, then shut down Shawville with a solid defence.

 

Perth held a 37-31 edge in shots.

 

The Blue Wings have a chance to build on a rare win when they host the Renfrew Timberwolves Friday night at the Community Centre. It’s their only game this week, and, the first of five in a row on home ice.

 

Stittsville 7 Perth 3

 

It just isn’t hockey weather when you come to the rink   wearing shorts and flip-flops.

 

Hey, when you’re 2-12-2-1, winless in ten, and, dead last in the EOJBHL Valley Division, any excuse will do.

 

With weather conditions more suited to golf, Perth rallied from a three goal deficit on a pair of goals from Ben Minkus and one from Zach Macmillan, then, it all fell apart after Stittsville’s Ryan Sterling tipped in Ryan MacDonald’s innocent looking shot from the point with 8.31 remaining in the second period. 

As has been the case in many of the Blue Wings twelve losses   “ it just snowballed from there “.    Snow  said. 

Curtis Sernoskie followed with his third of three at 18.31, then, the Royals put it on ice with two unanswered goals in the third.

 

It’s not as if the Blue Wings weren’t in the game. They outshot Stittsville 33-31, but couldn’t finish.  It’s not a surprise when your leading goal scorer has a grand total of six, halfway through the year.  Riley Kane and Minkus, the Blue Wings leading scorers, are tied for 27^th in Division scoring with 14 points. Next in team scoring is David Borden, with 11 in 12 games before a call up to the CJHL Kanata Stallions.  Stittsville, on the other hand, are a quick strike team, and, made the most of their scoring chances, three of them engineered by Brent Boschman, second in division scoring with 36 points.

 

Trent Bowden, Steven Powell and Ryan Donnelly had the other Stittsville goals. 

Sernoskie with the first two, then, Bowden, three quarters of the way through the first period, sent the visitors ahead by three however the Blue Wings responded with two before the buzzer.

 

MacMillan chipped in the rebound of brother Josh’s point shot then Minkus corralled a bad bounce of the endboards and stuffed a shot through Royals netminder Justin Gilbert.

 

Minkus’s sixth of the year came while the Blue Wings enjoyed a two-man advantage early in the second.

 

Wing Tips

 

…. Gio Falsetti and Adam Emmerton returned to the lineup however Ryan Caron and Jeff Kipping are still out for another two weeks. Steven Peca and Josh MacMillan will miss the Renfrew outing  due to a late game altercation in Shawville

 

…15-year-old Peter McGahey made his debut and didn’t look out of place. He even got under the skin of several Stittsville veterans.

 

…Sernoskie, acquired from Athens earlier in the season, added an assist for a four-point night. Boschman was foiled by Robbie Dier on a pair of breakaways

 

…Snow continues to talk trade, hoping to add a defenceman and a forward, who knows where the net is.   The December 1 CJHL cutdown date is another avenue. He also has   overage cards at his disposal.

 

…Game time Friday night is the usual 7.45 pm