Falcons stave off elimination
The St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons paid the price to live another day.
Facing elimination and the end of their season, the Falcons turned in a solid, gutsy and inspired effort to defeat the Fort Erie Meteors 3-2 before 1,710 fans at the Fort Erie Leisureplex.
The Meteors still lead the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League best-of-seven semifinal playoff series 3-2 and can advance to the finals to face the Caledonia Corvairs with a win in Game 6 in St. Catharines Monday night.
Falcons coach/general manager Tyler Bielby was beaming with pride as he emerged from a joyous Falcons dressing room.
“I’m so proud,” he said. “We love these kids. We spend so much time together at the arena, it’s tough to see them sad and losing and hurting themselves. We’ve had to work through it. I thought, for the most part, we played a disciplined game tonight and gave ourselves a chance to win.
“Every single one of them, these are our boys. We just want to keep coming to the rink with them.”
Bielby said the do-or-die nature of the game was on everyone’s mind.
“I think everybody is aware of the situation but it started last night (after Game 4),” he said. “We’ve been talking all day, messaging all day. I talk to the players constantly to make sure they knew they weren’t going anywhere, this is not going to be our last game. We’re going to Fort Erie to try and steal one and then go back home Monday and here we are, going back home Monday.”
Veteran forward Zach Mambella, who netted his third goal of the playoffs and second in as many games, admitted the thought of never playing another junior game crossed his mind.
“I’d be silly not to think that,” the 20-year-old St. Catharines native said. “There’s always a chance because you don’t know what’s going to happen out there. There’s a lot of older guys on this team and we all have the same goal.”
Mambella was thrilled to chip in offensively, but wasn’t keen on shining the spotlight on himself.
“We know what we want to do, we know what we have to do to win and we’re going to do whatever it takes,” he said. “It’s awesome but around here it’s we, it’s not individuals. We’re all in it together. We all have one goal in mind and whoever scores, it doesn’t matter. We’re all here to win.”
Bielby appreciates what Mambella brings to the team, on and off the ice.
“Zach is the first person I talked to back in the spring. He was my first recruit, my first player. He’s got two big goals in two games in a row for us and he’s a big reason we’re going back home Monday,” Bielby said.
The teams traded goals in the first period before the Meteors took a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal by Kyle Adamo less than a minute into the second. Mambella then tied the game at the 11:01 mark before Brenden Anderson netted the winner when he deflected a shot past Meteors netminder Charlie Burns on the power play at 18:45 of the second.
The Meteors pulled out all the stops in the third, but Hayden Jeffery stood strong in goal.
“We want to keep playing and keep pressing but naturally I think sometimes the players got on their heels,” Bielby said. “I thought they did that a little bit in the last 10 minutes, giving them the zone too easily, but if we’re willing to do what it takes to win, it’s not the end of the world.”
Fort Erie general manager/coach Nik Passero would have loved to see his club get off to a stronger start.
“We’ve had four slow starts out of five so that’s something as a staff we have to figure out and as a leadership group,” he said. “We’re starting off slow. In the first period, we were kind of feeling it out.”
Passero opined playing in front of such a raucous crowd may have had something to do with the sluggish start as well.
“These are kids that have never played in front of crowds like this. Emotions are very high and it makes you make mistakes and be a little tentative. That’s something, as a group, we have to be better at,” he said.
Passero said the Meteors don’t have to reinvent themselves heading into Game 6.
“Even our not-great periods, we were still in control but at the end it was an onslaught and we just have to find a way to put it in,” he said. “We don’t go in thinking we have three shots at this. You want to do it first try but then you have to take a deep breath, enjoy your Sunday, and go in there Monday and give them hell.”
Metscellaneous: Owen Penny (suspended), Grant Spada, Owen Cressman and Caleb Bidgood were scratched for the Meteors . . . Matthew Hlacar, Tyler Hunt (suspended), Jordan Marconi, Calvin Petrovsky, William Moore, Henry Attard and Marcus Harris did not dress for the Falcons . . . The Caledonia Corvairs defeated the Hamilton Kilty B’s 5-3 Saturday to advance to the finals.
STATS PACK
Falcons 3 Meteors 2
Falcons Zach Mambella with his second goal in as many games.
Fort Erie Meteors: Jaden Flora (5); Kyle Adamo (4).
St. Catharines Falcons: Brenden Anderson (6); Zach Mambella (3); Nathan Kelly (2).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Hayden Jeffery (24); by St. Catharines on Charlie Burns (24), Power plays: Fort Erie 1/3; St. Catharines 1/1, Penalty minutes: Fort Erie 4; St. Catharines 8.
Attendance: 1,710.
Next up: The Meteors head back to St. Catharines Monday at 7 p.m. for Game 6. Game 7, if necessary, is Tuesday in Fort Erie at 7:40 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.
