Owen Outwater scored a pair in his 100th game as the Kingston Frontenacs (21-19-1-1) improved to 7-3-0-0 on back-to-back nights winning a third straight contest with a big 6-2 victory over the Niagara IceDogs (8-24-6-1) at Meridian Centre on Saturday night. The win is the third in three games against the IceDogs and gave Kingston four wins in their past five games. Kingston improved to 17-10-1-0 when scoring their league leading 28th game-opening goal.
First star Outwater gave Kingston a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals in the first period before Nathan Poole and second star Gabriel Frasca, with two goals in the second, had the Fronts out to a 5-0 lead. A Niagara powerplay tally set up a 5-1 start of the third period. After pair of Niagara goals made it 5-2, Maddox Callens added a tally for the final 6-2 scoring. Rookie Jacob Battaglia and Tommy Budnick joined Frasca and Outwater with multi-point games.
Freshman goalie Mason Vaccari got his 15th appearance in the Kingston net with his 9th win stopping 25 of 27 home shots. Rookie Charlie Burns faced 30 Kingston shots in his first OHL game signed this week by Niagara.
Niagara came out with high energy early and the first chances to score with Daniel Michaud having a trio of chances for Niagara stopped by Vaccari midway through the frame before Kingston took the games first of five unanswered visitor tallies.
Outwater (9) buried a great cross ice pass by Tommy Budnick scoring the 1-0 tally for Kingston’s league-leading 28th game-opener at 13:26. After a Niagara turnover, Budnick made a smart play with a quick pass to Outwater for points in three straight contests (4A).
Burns made good save on Gabriel Frasca with just over three minutes left on one of 12 shots by Kingston on the rookie netminder in the first frame.
A buzzer beater by Outwater (10) put Kingston up 2-0 with 0.2 seconds left in the period sending Kingston to a second period with a 14-3-1-0 record leading after twenty minutes. Ethan Miedema earned an assist for a second straight game with the helper at 19:59.
Niagara dropped to a 1-16-4-1 record when trailing after the first period to the middle frame and found themselves down a third strike on Kingston’s 15th shot on their net.
It was 3-0 early in the second when Budnick wired a one-timer off a quick pass by Cal Uens that Nathan Poole (2) got a stick on for the eventual game-winner, deflecting the puck past the Niagara goaltender at 2:44. Budnick’s second point of the game came with Uens adding an assist in consecutive games.
Frasca (6) scored his first of the night deflecting an Outwater shot from long range on Kingston’s second powerplay chance just over the halfway point of the second. Jacob Battaglia made a great play to one-time a cross-ice pass to a waiting Frasca before the rookie skater’s shot changed directions in front of the Niagara goalie at 11:30. Outwater’s assist gave him three points in a game for a third time in his career.
The 5-0 tally saw Frasca (7) take advantage of a good puck bounce of the backboards for his second goal in 3:26 of play. Duncan Schneider had a helper with the initial shot after Battaglia earned a second assist on the night on the play coming right off the draw at 14:56. It was the second time Frasca has recorded a multi-goal game in his rookie season.
Niagara scored on their first powerplay of the game, shortly after the fifth Kingston strike, when Zakary Lavoie (16) was set up alone in the slot for a hard shot beating Vaccari low to the blocker side. The 5-1 score extended a four-game personal point streak for Lavoie as Niagara began to push back.
Kingston took an 11-2-1-0 record when leading at the start of a third frame and had to face some home pressure making it a 5-2 game with less than eight minutes left outshooting the Fronts 12-8 in the period.
Chris Thibodeau was hit by Niagara’s Nathan Ribau hard in the neutral zone with Battaglia getting sent off in a post-whistle scrum for the IceDogs second powerplay. Vaccari made a nice save early in the man advantage off Michaud on one of five shots seen off Niagara sticks during the man advantage. Paul Ludwinski had a shorthanded breakaway stopped by Burns to keep it a 5-1 score.
The Fronts went to a third penalty kill moments later but was cut short as the teams skated four on four for a minute before a Niagara score with 7:21 left. Declan Waddick (13) scored the 5-2 tally after a scramble play in front of Vaccari as Niagara continued to press outshooting Kingston 8-5 at the time. The play was reviewed for goalie interference but deemed good at 12:38.
Maddox Callens (8) scored for the second consecutive game to put it the game out of reach, with a nice deke and shot combo up over the shoulder of Burns for the 6-2 score. Ludwinski and Ben Roger added assists on the final goal at 16:31.
The Black and Gold wrap up a three-game in three-day stretch tomorrow afternoon in Guelph at 2:00 pm.
Scorers:
KGN: Outwater (9,10), Poole (2), Frasca (6,7), Callens (8)
NIA: Lavoie (16), Waddick (13)
Powerplays:
KGN: (1/3)
NIA: (1/4)
BMW of Kingston Hardest Worker:
Jacob Battaglia – (2A)
Three Star Awards
- Owen Outwater – KGN (2G,1A)
- Gabriel Frasca – KGN (2G)
- Declan Waddick– NIAG (1G,1A)
Fronts Notes:
- Nov 23 – Frontenacs Hockey Club officially announced its bid for rights to host the 2024 Memorial Cup presented by Kia
- KGN – T-1st OHL with BAR – game-opening goals (28)
- F Owen Outwater – points in three straight (3G,1A) – career regular season game 100
- D Cal Uens – pts in 2 straight (2A)
- F Maddox Callens – pts in 2 straight (1G,1A)
- F Ethan Miedema – pts in 2 straight (2A)
- D Tommy Budnick – pts in 3 straight (4A)
Team Stat Pack – GP (42) (21-19-1-1) 44 pts
Leaders:
Goals –Soto (13), Thibodeau (12), Miedema (11)
PPG – Ludwinski, Soto (5), Miedema (3)
Assists – Soto (23), Miedema (22), Ludwinski, Burns (20)
PPA – Hemström (10), Burns (9), Outwater, Ludwinski, Soto (6)
Points –Soto (36), Miedema (33), Outwater, Hemström (28)
PPP – Ludwinski (11), Burns, Hemström, Soto (10)
SOG –Thibodeau (82), Soto (80), Outwater (70)
Plus/Minus –Miedema (+7), Burns (+6)
PIMs – Burns (77), Budnick (50), Uens (41)
On The Front
The Fronts wrap up a two-day road trip against the Guelph Storm tomorrow, Sun, Jan 22, at 2:00 pm.
The next home matchup sees the Oshawa Generals visit the Leon’s Centre for a second consecutive skate on Friday, Jan 27, at 7:00 pm for Frontenacs Night. The game welcomes past alums featuring our current roster wearing special 50th-anniversary jerseys inspired by Frontenacs uniforms from 2007-2012. Kingston plays back-to-back nights at home with the Western Conference London Knights visiting Kingston for a 7:00 pm matchup on Sat, Jan 28. It’s Women in Sports Night, featuring a special ceremonial puck drop and inspirational messages from female athletes throughout the evening.
96.3 Big FM and 104.3 Fresh Radio are your exclusive home for play-by-play with Jim Gilchrist and Kingston Frontenacs Hockey! Fans can listen live to all the games at https://frontenacs.leanplayer.com/. Fans can also tune into the game at https://watch.chl.ca/ (subscription needed).
Fans are encouraged to follow the team’s social media channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for live updates!
All home game tickets are available online at www.ticketmaster.ca or by visiting the Leon’s Centre box office at 1 The Tragically Hip Way. The box office is open Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm and 2 hours before puck drop on home game days. Group tickets, Flex Packs and season ticket memberships are available at www.kingstonfrontenacs.com.
