The Buffalo Jr. Sabres captured their first home win of the 2015-2016 OJHL season on Tuesday, closing out day one of the league’s Showcase with a 6-1 win over the Newmarket Hurricanes.
Buffalo went 3-for-5 on the power play, which helped lead them to the win despite allowing Newmarket a wealth of man-advantage opportunities.
In the end, the Hurricanes were unable to take advantage of 14 power plays over the course of the evening, allowing the Jr. Sabres to capture the victory at HARBORCENTER’s First Niagara Rink.
Jr. Sabres forward Chris Berger kicked off the scoring 12:39 in on the power play after a tripping minor to Newmarket’s Marty Lawlor.
For a while, it looked like that would mark all the action for the first period — but it’s not over until the clock reads zero. With just 12.9 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Christian DiFelice potted one to make it 2-0 Buffalo.
Less than eight minutes into the second period, it was Newmarket’s turn to score their lone goal of the night, as Ryan Shaw tapped one in to close the gap to just a one-goal lead.
From there, it was all Buffalo, starting with Griffin Lunn’s rocket from close in to make it 3-1.
Then, with less than two minutes to go in the middle frame, Andrew Pizzo snuck one in behind the goaltender to give the Jr. Sabres a three-goal lead.
Action would continue in the third period with a pair of power-play goals by the Jr. Sabres, as both Bryce Ferrell and Joshua Biasillo netted tallies to give Buffalo a 6-1 victory.
Jr. Sabres netminder Tucker Weppner stopped 29 of 30 shots faced in the win.
The Jr. Sabres’ next game is Thursday, as they host the Kingston Voyageurs at 6:15 p.m. in the final game of the OJHL Governors’ Showcase.