Corvairs clip Mets to even series
Fort Erie Meteors general manager/coach Nik Passero saw no reason for concern following his club’s 3-2 loss to the Caledonia Corvairs Saturday night on home ice.
In fact, Passero was just wrapping up a quick message to his charges when the media arrived outside the Mets’ dressing room.
“No message,” Passero said when asked for the details of his post-game chat. “We know who we are. We weren’t going to sweep these guys. Get in the cold tubs, get some food into you. Bus leaves tomorrow at 4 p.m.”
Caledonia’s win evens the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference best-of-seven final series at 1-1. Game 3 is Sunday in Caledonia.
“We’ve got 24 hours to do it again,” Passero continued. “We were fine. They scored one more goal than us. They had some stretches where they were better and we had some stretches where we were better.
“It’s playoff hockey.”
The Meteors continue to struggle in their barn — both their losses in their semifinal series versus St. Catharines were at home — but Passero doesn’t seem concerned.
“We were much better today than we were in the St. Catharines series at home,” he said. “I’m not really worried about it. It sucks, you want to win in front of this group. It sucks we haven’t won for our fans but I thought we were good tonight.”
Passero did admit the larger ice surface at the Leisureplex does present an issue versus the high-flying Corvairs, who led the entire GOJHL in goals scored with 234 in the regular season.
“Way harder to defend. They have some lethal players over there and they are hard to defend,” he said. “They don’t give up much because they’re so good offensively. When they have the puck on their sticks it’s hard to get it back. It’s a completely different beast than we’ve competed with in the past couple of series but I’m happy with our effort. We have to turn it around and go there and get it done.”
Following a scoreless first period which saw the Corvairs outshoot the Mets 10-6, Fort Erie opened the scoring at 6:44 of the second when Golden Horseshoe Rookie of the Year Liam Beamish netted his fourth of the playoffs. The lead was short-lived as Steve LaForme tied things up less than five minutes later on a shot that handcuffed Fort Erie goaltender Charlie Burns, who was otherwise outstanding.
Markus Dempewolf gave the Corvairs their first lead early in the third before Sam Tonelli scored on a nice individual effort at 9:42 to tie the score at 2-2. Overtime was looming when former Niagara IceDog Sami Douglas scored the winner at 14:43.
Passero and the Meteors are experiencing playing for a championship for the first time but overall have been poised, even when emotions boil over on the ice or from the other bench where Caledonia head coach Mike Bullard doesn’t hide his emotions and is often animated in his actions.
“I’m way more composed than I expected,” Passero said. “This team, nothing bothers them. It’s crazy. We practised last night and just the calm in the group. We have some veterans that just have this calming influence on the group.
“Our bench is so calm. We made one mistake with the too many men but other than that we stuck with it and killed penalties. I just love this group.”
Metscellaneous: Baeddan Pollett, Grant Spada, Caleb Bidgood and Georgy Toroptsev were scratched for the Meteors.
STATS PACK
Corvairs 3 Meteors 2
Fort Erie goaltender Charlie Burns with 29 saves.
Fort Erie Meteors: Sam Tonelli (5); Liam Beamish (4).
Caledonia Corvairs: Markus Dempewolf (7); Steve LaForme (3); Sami Douglas (3).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Finn Wilson (25); by Caledonia on Charlie Burns (32), Power plays: Fort Erie 1/9; Caledonia 0/4, Penalty minutes: Fort Erie 10; Caledonia 30.
Attendance: 1,800
Next up: The Meteors head back to Caledonia for Game 3, Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 5,900 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
