Lesser lights shine for Meteors
R.J. Schmidt has discovered his scoring touch early in the post season.
The 19-year-old defenceman collected three assists Saturday in the opener of the series, then followed it up with a goal Monday as the Fort Erie Meteors blanked the Port Colborne Sailors 3-0 at the Vale Centre in Port Colborne.
The Mets now lead the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, best-of-seven quarter-final playoffs series 2-0 with Game 3 in Fort Erie Wednesday.
Schmidt didn’t mince his words when asked how it felt to chip in offensively against the Sailors.
“It’s great,” he said. “I do not like Port Colborne. It just fires me up. The more they talk, the more I want to score and be the reason they bring out the golf clubs this summer and pack it up.”
Schmidt collected seven goals and 12 assists in 39 games in the regular season.
“He had a really good start to the year and then he had a bad injury and it took him a little bit after his injury to come back and now he’s right in the fold there,” Meteors general manager/coach Nik Passero said. “A great two games for him and he’s playing with Rylan (Masterson) which is a great paring.”
The Meteors turned in another solid overall defensive effort, permitting just 14 shots on Charlie Burns.
“It shows how much we care and how tight we are as a group,” Schmidt said. “Guys are out there blocking shots, chipping pucks out, taking hits. It shows how much this means to us.”
Schmidt feels it is key to put the team first in the playoffs.
“The guys are really buying in and we care about our goals against,” he said. “We take pride in it. When we win games it’s not going to be 9-2 or 5-2, it’s going to be close all playoffs.”
Passero loved his team’s effort.
“We played hard and they’re playing a style where they’re not going to outshoot you, by any means,” he said. “They had 14 shots but I bet eight of them were Grade 1 chances that our goalie had to make big saves on.
“I thought thoroughly, throughout the whole lineup, we were good and Charlie (Burns) made some big saves.”
While the Sailors tight checking kept the Meteors big guns off the board, the lesser lights chipped in Monday with rookie Aiden Zimmerman and defenceman Cam Robillard scoring goals.
“Aiden is an AP for us, a third-generation Meteor, so it’s nice to get him in the lineup and get him acclimated into our program because he’s going to me a Meteor for a long time,” Passero said.
Zimmerman is a 16-year-old Fort Erie native who also plays for Ridley College.
The Meteors can take a stranglehold on the series with a win at home Wednesday.
“I think the guys know the job’s not finished,” Schmidt said. “It’s a lot different playing hockey than it was in September or October. We know coming in every night it’s not going to be a blowout. It’s going to be hard 20 minutes at a time every night and we’ve done a good job of doing that.”
Metscellaneous: Andrew MacNiel, Nolan Stickland and Grant Spada were scratched for the Meteors . . . Val Johnson, Gavin Torkoff, Ethan Bolibruck, Nick Tymochenko and Aydan Doyle did not dress for the Sailors.
STATS PACK
Meteors 3 Sailors 0
Fort Erie defenceman R.J. Schmidt with the winning goal.
Fort Erie Meteors: R.J. Schmidt (1); Aiden Zimmerman (1); Cam Robillard (1).
Port Colborne Sailors: No scoring.
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Lucas Cardiff-Bilodeau (43), by Port Colborne on Charlie Burns (14); Power plays: Fort Erie 0/2, Port Colborne 0/5; Penalty minutes: Fort Erie 20, Port Colborne 16.
Attendance: 901.
Up next: Game 3 Wednesday at Fort Erie, 7 p.m. Game 4 Friday at Port Colborne, 7:30 p.m.
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