Whalers Edge Renegades

In their first meeting since October 9th, the ninth place Niagara Whalers headed to North York to meet the fifth place North York Renegades in a south division Greater Metro Hockey League matchup. The Renegades are coming off a 5 – 4 loss to the Northumberland Stars 24 hours eariler at home while the Whalers were looking for their second straight win with a 5 – 4 win on December 7th to the Kingsville Kings.

Veteran Whaler Andrew Ferlatte opened the scoring 3:11 into the game to give Niagara a 1 – 0 lead with Dallas McKee and Mason Shumate adding the contributors. Christian D’Amico evens the game 1 – 1 at the 9:34 mark of the period with David Sally and Adrian Bertie setting up D’Amico’s tying goal. Santino Foti finds the back of Whaler goaltender Will Harvey’s net 19 seconds past the halfway mark of the first for North York’s go-ahead goal. Brendan MacKenzie and Stephen Mariani had the helpers on Foti’s goal. Tanner Lynds fires the tying goal for Niagara at 11:30 of the period with Tanner Ferreira and Colt Jaime drawing the assists on the Whalers second of the contest. With 49 seconds remaining in the period, Humberto Sosa sends the visitors into the first intermission up 3 – 2. Mason Shumate registered the lone helper on Sosa’s goal.

At 2:56 of the middle stanza, Foti scores the lone goal of the period to pull the Renegades even at 3 – 3 with Rick Pantling adding the contributors. Niagara’s Tanner Ferreira rifled the fourth of the game for the Whalers at 4:04 of the third with Bryce Martin and Blake Hembruff notching the assists. Thirty seconds before the halfway mark of the period, Christian Bascio and David Sally combine on D’Amico’s tying goal at the 10:30 mark of the final period. Colt Jaime scores in the shootout to give the Whalers a 5 – 4 win over the Renegades in North York. Goaltender Will Harvey and Joseph Pearce turned away a total of 90 shots with Renegade’s Harvey stopping 41 of 45 while Pearce turned away 40 of 45 in the Whalers win.

The fifth place Renegades will now meet the eleventh place Toronto Predators in North York on December 12th in a 7:45 p.m start while the eighth place Whalers host the seventh place Tottenham Steam on December 14th for a 7:30 p.m start in Port Colborne at the Vale Centre.