Saturday night's McLean & Dickey Orillia Terriers game started out with some fast-paced back-and-forth hockey, but as the game went on the Terriers failed to keep up with their opponent.
Despite having 45 shots on goal and having four power play chances, the Terriers lost 8-1 Saturday night to the visiting Alliston Hornets.
The Jr. C Terriers were wearing their new black uniforms in front of a crowd of about 247 fans at Rotary Place, which recently lifted its COVID-19 capacity restrictions.
The Hornets got on the score sheet first seven minutes into the opening frame when Aiden Landers sniped home a one-timer for his first goal of the season.
The Terriers wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in the second period when defenceman Isaiah Philip scored just two minutes into the frame after receiving a cross-ice pass from left winger Austin Holenski.
“They were leading 1-0 up to that point, so to score two minutes in was big because I thought it would give us some momentum to get back into the game,” Philip said.
Philip now has eight goals on the season, which is tied for the most among all Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL) defencemen.
“It’s a team effort. The players I play with are making it very easy for me, they seem to find me in open spots, and they seem to cover for me very well,” he said.
“I just give this team the best effort I can and they put me in the position to succeed.”
About six minutes later, the Hornets responded to reclaim their lead with a snapshot from forward Cole Turcotte. As the second period neared its conclusion, Connor Hiles banged home his first marker of the season, giving the Hornets a 3-1 lead going into the third.
The Terriers failed to muster anything positive in the third period and the game got away from them 48 seconds in when forward Owen Fralick boosted the Hornets' lead to three. Alliston would tack on four more before the final buzzer sounded.
The North Carruthers Division leading Terriers are now 10-2 on the season, while the fifth-place Hornets improved to 5-5-0-1.
Terriers captain Broderick Black says the Hornets were the hungrier team on Saturday night.
“We couldn’t burry our chances, our (defensive)-zone coverage wasn’t good, we weren’t picking our guys up in front of the net, and we left our goalies hung out to dry,” he said.
Black says the 8-1 beat-down is a wake-up call for the Terriers.
“We are going to come back to the rink for practice on Tuesday and we are going to work harder and learn from our mistakes,” he said.
“We are going to put this behind us and go out there and play our best game next week.”
Terriers head coach Dallyn Telford says Saturday’s game was a case of a young team getting pushed like they haven’t been pushed before.
“With a 10-1 record coming into this game we probably thought we were a little better than we were tonight, and the Alliston Hornets are still the Alliston Hornets. They haven’t had a great start, but there is still a pretty good team at the end of that hallway,” he said.
“They took it to us in our home rink. Hopefully, that’s a game that will mentally bring us back down to earth. It’s over with, we still have a great record, and hopefully, it will motivate us to practise harder than we ever have on Tuesday, and then get back on the horse next weekend.”
The Terriers will spend the next two weeks playing away from home against Midland and Stayner. The team will return home to take on Schomberg on Saturday, Nov. 20.
