It’s official, with just a game to play the Hamilton Kilty B’s have won the 2021-2022 Tony Passero Memorial Award as GOJHL regular season champions!
With the St. Catharines Falcons (the last team within striking distance) losing 5-4 to the Niagara Falls Canucks earlier on in the day, what has been almost a certainty for quite some time was mathematically confirmed before the puck dropped for Hamilton on Sunday night.
The regular season championship in the bag, the Kilty B’s celebrated with a 4-1 road win over the Welland Jr. Canadians.
Kilty B’s goaltender Braedyn McIntosh’s herculean effort on an early Welland power play in the opening minutes foreshadowed what was to come in the game. McIntosh nearly had his second shutout in a row, letting only one puck past him – a meaningless goal in the third period with the game already under wraps.
Colin MacDougall (19,20), Brodie McIntyre (6) and Dylan Abbamont scored for the Kilty B’s (39-7-1-0), the offence continuing its hot streak with 20 goals in the last four games.
The seal was broken with just over three minutes to go in the first period, when MacDougall won a puck battle with a Welland defender in the corner and took the puck strongly to the net for the goal.
The second period saw two more Hamilton goals, McIntyre first with the eventual game winner on a wrist shot halfway through the frame. MacDougall added his second before the break to make it 3-0 Hamilton.
After Welland made it 3-1 in the third, Abbamont responded quickly with a marker of his own to make sure the win stayed secure.
Leading scorer Conner Thomson-Dick (10) was the lone goal scorer for Welland (18-25-3-0).
McIntosh likely closes out the season with a 20-2-0-0 record and a .940 save percentage, as the Kilty B’s might elect to rest him in their regular season finale tomorrow night, the second half of back-to-back games.
Hamilton will close out the season against the Caledonia Pro-Fit Corvairs on Monday night at home.
Next Game Matchup Preview:
- Hamilton is 3-3-0-0 against Caledonia this season, the most recent matchup being a 2-1 shootout victory for the Kilty B’s on March 19th.
- Caledonia sits in third place in the Golden Horseshoe Conference, only four points behind St. Catharines with both teams having three games to play.
