Blackhawk fans could be excused for believing their hearts were going to be broken early as the home team found themselves down 1-0 only 23 seconds into the game, but instead were treated to an entertaining, but ultimately losing effort as St. Catharines held on for a 6-4 win Thursday night.
The crowd was barely in their seats when the Falcons opened the scoring, but had reason to hope a few minutes later when Nicholas Rubino tied it up, assisted by Cam Lightfoot and Riley Sutherland.
St. Catharines slipped ahead a few minutes later leaving the Hawks trailing by one at the end of one.
Thorold knotted it again when Trevor Neumann crashed the St. Catharines goal early in the second, only to see St. Catharines jump ahead by two with two unanswered goals for a 4-2 lead. Following the fourth goal, however, Thorold only needed 14 seconds to pull back within one as Sutherland potted the Hawks third goal, assisted by Rubino and Lightfoot.
The crowd was fully engaged later in the period when Thorold came all the way back and tied the score again with Evan Miller picking up the equalizer, assisted by Neumann and Michael Craig.
The Falcons pulled ahead again at the six-minute mark of the third and it proved to be the winner as Thorold failed to find a way to beat St. Catharines’ goalkeeper the rest of the way. St. Catharines capped off their win with an empty-netter with 30 seconds left in the game.
Thorold had its chances, especially late in the third, but failed to find any success with their power play, going 0-6 with the man advantage. The Hawks were outshot 27-23.
The two Jr. B teams square off again Friday night in St. Catharines.
