Cyclones and Siskins meet this Friday in battle for sixth

February 1, 2012
Terry Bridge
Font Size S M L
Listowel Banner - Cyclones and Siskins meet this Friday in battle for sixth
 LISTOWEL – An anthem-to-final-buzzer effort continues to plague the Listowel Cyclones.

The team chipped away at the Elmira Sugar Kings, turning a 5-1 second-period deficit into a one-goal game on Friday night, but the wheels fell off after that.

“One of the teams scores against us and we kind of get down, then there’s three more in the back of our net,” said Listowel forward Caleb Cameron, who scored twice in a 1:52 span against the Kings, the second his 25th of the year. “We’ve got to have that will to compete the whole 60 minutes, no matter if they got a goal or not.”

The Kings (32-9-1) skated away with an 8-4 final on Jan. 27 at Listowel Memorial Arena.

The next night was another defeat, 3-2 in Cambridge against the Winter Hawks, but the story was a little different this time around for Listowel’s Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League club.

“We scored our second goal to make it 2-1, and then an unfortunate-timed goal right after, again with losing a little bit of enthusiasm after getting scored against,” explained second-year forward David Dalby. “We couldn’t bury. Had lots of chances and we were all over them, a very back-and-forth game, but we couldn’t find the net.”

Overall the Cyclones (14-25-3) are struggling.

Losing six of their last seven games has the club tied with the Waterloo Siskins at 31 points each.

The two will collide this Friday at Listowel Memorial Arena to decide who will take over sole possession of sixth in the Midwestern Conference.

“It is a big game,” Cameron, 18, said. “I think we’re just going to stick to the simple stuff, what we need to do, and not underestimate Waterloo because they are a good team, young and gifted.”

The Siskins have won four of their last five, but the Cyclones hold a 3-2 head-to-head series lead.

The Feb. 3 game starts at 7:30 p.m.

Listowel is home again on Super Bowl Sunday to the Stratford Cullitons (35-7) at 1:30 p.m.

Brett Catto wasted no time ensuring a super return to Listowel.

The former Cyclones captain scored 3:23 into Friday’s game, his second as an Elmira Sugar King and 14th on the year.

His new club constructed a four-goal lead at the halfway mark of the game, chasing goalie Michael Pesendorfer.

For the first time since being acquired from the Wingham Ironmen of the Western Junior C league in early January, goalie Brandon MacDonald from Palmerston made an appearance in relief of Pesendorfer.

“Brandon stood tall, made a couple of good saves and we kind of rallied around that a little bit,” said Dalby, an 18-year-old Stratford native.

Dalby responded with his 18th goal of the season and fifth on the power play a shade under three minutes following the goalie swap.

He had just seven in his rookie campaign a year ago.

Cameron’s pair early in the third closed the gap to one, then Elmira scored three straight to close it out.

“It’s kind of just been basically our story this year, we haven’t been able to play consistent, full 60-minute games. I think Friday night that was it again,” Cameron said. “We came out in the third and made a rally, we had our chances, came back. We played a solid probably 20 minutes of the full 60 minutes, even half the game, but especially against a team like Elmira – gifted on the power play, gifted all around – we just needed to stay strong, play the full 60 minutes to compete with them.”

Riley Sonnenburg collected a hat trick for Elmira, two shorthanded, to increase his total to 29.

He bagged his 30th on Sunday versus Stratford.

Will Cook, Brett Preistap, Andrew Smith and Scott Nagy rounded out their club’s scoring.

Jarrett Kup had the other goal for the home side, his third.

Elmira finished 1-for-3 on the power play and out-shot their hosts 44-42.

Listowel went 2-for-8.

Pesendorfer stopped 21 of 26 shots, MacDonald 15 of 18.

Justin Husak improved to 8-2 with a 38-save performance.

Michael Christou broke a third-period tie to give the Cambridge Winter Hawks (25-16-1) a 3-2 victory in Listowel’s second game in as many nights.

“I thought we played really well in Cambridge. The puck wasn’t bouncing our way, we had a lot of chances and were in their zone a lot,” Cameron recalled. “I think it was a hard-fought battle for both teams and we just came out with the loss.”

Brandon Zimmerman and Ryan Clarke had previously scored for his team, while Ben Shelley and Dylan Sayle responded for the Cyclones at the Galt Arena Gardens.

Clarke’s was on the power play as Cambridge went 1-for-8.

The Cyclones were blanked in all six opportunities.

They took the shot battle 44-32.