Falcons rebound with OT win
The St. Catharines Falcons edged the Caledonia Corvairs 2-1 in overtime Saturday night to square their playoff series at 1-1. File photo: BILL POTRECZ
The St. Catharines Falcons rebounded from an uncharacteristically poor effort Friday to edge the Caledonia Corvairs 2-1 in overtime Saturday.
The win evens the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League best-of-seven semifinal playoff series at 1-1.
The Corvairs shutout the Falcons 5-0 in Game 1, the first time St Catharines had been blanked all season.
“I think you could sense it in the room and overall in general. They were over last night when they walked into the rink today,” Falcons coach Tyler Bielby said. “The focus was on the two points at hand. We got back to keeping the puck out of our net and being harder to play in our zone. That’s how we’re going to win, taking pride in our own zone and make sure we’re getting pucks out.”
The Falcons took a 1-0 lead about halfway through when hard working Zach Mizzi scored his first of the playoffs.
The Corvairs kept pressing and finally scored at 19:57 when Dominic Mufarreh beat Aiden Berry to tie the game and send it into overtime.
“Tough to let in a goal with three seconds left in the game for them to tie it up but just proud of our guys how they were able regroup,” Bielby said. “It just speaks to their character.”
Blake Yetman kept the drama to a minimum, scoring the winner at 2:30 of the fourth period.
The Corvairs outshot the Falcons 29-28. Both teams were scoreless with the man advantage (St. Catharines 0/4, Caledonia 0/3)
“It was a good hockey game,” Bielby said. “You have two good teams going at it. Caledonia showed up to win again and we showed up on the right side of it.”
Game 3 is Monday in St. Catharines.
“It’s big. We got down in the series, we worked hard to pull off a big overtime win and now we have to take advantage of that momentum and really make sure we’re ready to go on Monday,” Bielby said.
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