Falcons top Titans in opener
The St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons jumped out to an early lead en route to a 5-2 victory over the Brantford Titans Friday night in the opener of their Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, best-of-seven semifinal playoff series.
Brendan Grenville (4), William Moore (2) and Easton Poirier (2) scored before the first period was 12 minutes old.
The Titans then battled back with goals from Kaleb Frank (5) and Kyle Henneberry (3) in the second period before the seven-minute mark to draw Brantford to within one.
The Falcons rebounded with a strong final 20 minutes, scoring twice on goals by Samuel Mudie (1) and Nathan Duplessis (4).
“We started on time and finished the right way,” Falcons president of hockey operations/head coach Tyler Bielby said. “Need to clean up the middle frame and make sure we are putting 60 minutes together.
“Good win, put it behind us and turn our focus to Sunday.”
Titans coach Dan Fitzgerald would have liked to see his club get off to a better start.
“We obviously didn’t have the start we wanted to, but I really liked our push back in the second period,” he said. “Giving up two power-play goals in the third isn’t the recipe for a comeback. We have more to give than that and we’ll be ready for Sunday.”
Hayden Jeffery made 17 saves in net for the win.
Carter Vincente faced 32 shots in goal for Brantford.
Game 2 goes Sunday in Brantford at 7:30 with Game 3 in St. Catharines Monday at 7 p.m.
The Caledonia Corvairs visit the Fort Erie Meteors Saturday at 7 p.m. to begin their best-of-seven semifinal.
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