OAKVILLE, ON - JAN 6, 2018: Ontario Junior Hockey League game between the Oakville Blades and the Markham Royals. Lucas Condotta #22 of the Markham Royals tapes up his stick during the second period.

Written By Rino Mattucci     Photo by Spencer Smye / OJHL Images

MARKHAM, ON - JAN 19, 2018: With points in 7 straight games, and having won their last two in a row, the Markham Royals (23-14-1-3) will look to keep pace in the North Division this weekend with a back-to-back set. First up on Friday night the Royals will host the Cobourg Cougars (19-18-2-2) for the completion of their home-and-home series that started on Monday night in Cobourg. The Royals will then travel to Aurora on Saturday night for a big North Division tilt with the Aurora Tigers (25-9-1-3).

Friday night is the 4th of 5 meetings this season between the Cougars and Royals, their third meeting back on Monday (Jan 15) night was a tightly contested game until the end of the 2nd period when Devyn Mayea opened the scoring and the Royals took over from there. In the end it was a 4-0 victory with Nate McDonald stopping all 28 shots he faced for his first shut out as a member of the Royals and his 4th of the season. The Royals are also getting a boost from deadline acquisition Kosta Likourezos who has 2 goals and 3 points in his first two games with Markham. The Royals currently (at the time of writing) sit in 3rd place in the North Division, 4 points behind both Newmarket and Aurora.

As for the Tigers, they continue to find ways to win. Since Dec 01 Aurora has won 11 of 13 games, the other two were overtime losses, and have outscored their opponents by a 6-2 average over that stretch. The Tigers also boast the best specialty teams in the League, with the best penalty kill percentage and the third best power play. Both the Royals and the Tigers will be playing on the back end of a back-to-back weekend as the Tigers are at home to the Whitby Fury on Friday night, and the Royals will be looking to avenge a 10-3 loss to the Tigers back on Dec 15.

Game time on Friday at the Markham Centennial Community Centre is at 7:30pm, while Saturday night at the Aurora Community Centre puck drop is scheduled for 7:30pm.

Players Watch
Royals - #22 Lucas Condotta - The Royals Captain has been leading the team all season, and with points in each of his last 8 games, Condotta has already surpassed his 65 point total from last season (in 54 games). In his OJHL career Lucas is sitting on 69 goals and 187 points, and with 13 games left this season it’s not stretch of the imagination to see Condotta reach 200 points in his OJHL career.

Past Results
VS Cobourg
10/02/17    Markham 2 at Cobourg 5
11/10/17    Cobourg 1 at Markham 4
01/15/18    Markham 4 at Cobourg 0

VS Aurora
11/24/17    Markham 2 at Aurora 1
12/15/17    Aurora 10 at Markham 3

By the Numbers
Record
Markham - 23-14-1-3
Cobourg - 19-18-2-2
Aurora - 25-9-1-3

Goals For / Goals Against
Markham - 155 / 133
Cobourg - 125 / 127
Aurora - 161 / 82

Special Teams (PP / PK)
Markham - 27 for 178 (15.2%) / 29 for 186 (84.4%)
Cobourg - 22 for 170 (12.9%) / 27 for 195 (86.2%)
Aurora - 47 for 209 (22.5%) / 15 for 198 (92.4%)