Canucks bounce back to tie series
Brandon Bastasin couldn’t have picked a better way or more opportunistic time to atone for some undisciplined play.
The big rearguard took a pair of costly penalties early in the game, but more than made up for it when he scored the winner in overtime as the Niagara Falls Canucks topped the St. Catharines Falcons 4-3 Wednesday at Jack Gatecliff Arena.
The best-of-seven Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference final is now tied 2-2. The series shifts back to Niagara Falls Friday for Game 5.
“I took a bunch of stupid penalties so I had to make it up to the boys somehow, whether it was a big hit or a nice play, but I’m glad I got that last goal for them,” said Bastasin, a 20-year-old native of Mississauga.
Bastasin’s goal came five minutes into the extra frame.
“I’m pretty sure one of our guys shot it in the corner, it hit the back boards and out to me and I one-timed it, top shelf,” Bastasin explained. “Shoot from anywhere.”
The Canucks, coming off a 6-1 loss Tuesday in Game 4, managed to turn the page and come up with perhaps their best overall game of the series.
“We knew we had to bounce back from that,” Bastasin said. “We’ve got a bunch of veterans on this team and even the young guys knew we had to buy in and it showed at the end of the game there.”
Bastasin said there was no grand game plan heading into extra time.
“We didn’t really worry about anything. We just worried about getting the pucks down low and battling,” he said. “We knew we were going to get it. We were confident.”
Falcons coach/general manager Frank Girhiny tipped his cap to the Canucks.
“I thought they played exceptionally well tonight,” he said. “ They were intense. They weren’t going to give up and give them all the credit in the world.
“I didn’t think we matched their intensity. I thought we played a pretty good game and could have won, but it was all their game, for sure.”
Once again special teams came into play with the Canucks scoring three times with the man advantage while the Falcons netted a pair of power-play goals.
“Our pre-game talk was all about discipline and staying out of the box. They scored three power-play goals so that’s the tale of the tape right there,” Girhiny said.
The series is now down to a best-of-three set.
“We knew this was going to be a series,” Girhiny said. “We’ll bounce back Friday night.”
Following Bastasin’s winner, the Canucks poured on to the ice to celebrate and a scuffle ensued. Patrick McCabe of the Canucks was assessed a gross misconduct, which carries an automatic two-game suspension, while Canucks coach Frank Pietrangelo was assessed a leaving the bench penalty. Pietrangelo stayed on the bench but that is the terminology used for a coach when a player is given a gross misconduct after an overtime goal. It carries an automatic two-game suspension, although Pietrangelo said the Canucks were going to watch the game tape to see if the penalty was warranted. Girhiny was given the same penalty in the semifinals versus Hamilton for a similar incident.
The teams exchanged power-play goals in the first period. The Falcons struck first early when Jacob Roach potted his 10th of the playoffs before the Canucks responded late in the period on David D’Agostino’s eighth of the post-season. Niagara Falls held a 12-8 edge in shots.
Mitch Mendonca gave Niagara Falls a 2-1 lead with an early power-play goal. The Falcons finally tied it late in the period when Tanner Main celebrated his 19th birthday with a power-play goal. St. Catharines outshot Niagara Falls 20-9.
Mendonca gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead with his second of the game, on the power play of course, just 38 seconds into the third. Mike Masotti then tied it at 3-3 when he powered a wrist shot past Zach Moore.
The Canucks played the final 10 minutes of the third without Mendonca, who was given a misconduct.
Falcon facts: Dakota Miskolczi, Ethan Sims and Noah Blakely did not dress for the Falcons . . . Justin Kyle was scratched for the Canucks . . . Falls forward Ryan Smith was assessed a 10-minute misconduct in the first period . . . Falcons lost defenceman Josh Urbshott early in the second with a lower body injury and he’s listed as day to day. . . St. Catharines forward Christian Girhiny spent 12 minutes in the box for a boarding minor and a misconduct.
Canucks 4 Falcons 3 OT
BPSN Star of the Game: Niagara Falls defencemen Brandon Bastasin with the winner in OT.
St. Catharines Falcons: Jacob Roach (10); Mike Masotti (4); Tanner Main (2).
Niagara Falls Canucks: Bastasin (4); Mitch Mendonca 2 (13, 14); David D’Agostino (8).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By St. Catharines on Zach Moore (40), by Niagara Falls on Noah Battaglia (32); Power plays: St. Catharines 2-for-9, Niagara Falls 3-for-9; Penalty minutes: St. Catharines 28, Niagara Falls 39.
Attendance: 743.
Up next: Game 5 Friday in Niagara Falls. Game 6 Sunday in St. Catharines. Both are 7 p.m. starts.
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