Meteors complete sweep
The Fort Erie Meteors got out their brooms and swept away the Caledonia Corvairs Wednesday night in Caledonia.
The Meteors defeated the Corvairs 3-1 to complete a four-game sweep of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Eastern Conference best-of-seven semifinal playoff series.
“Can’t ask for much more from our group,” Fort Erie general manager/coach Nik Passero said. “But like I said yesterday, they’re not a team you want to play seven times. So I think it was nice to get it done today and now enjoy a little bit of time off before we ramp it up for the finals.”
The Meteors now advance to the Eastern Conference final and will play the winner of the St. Catharines-Brantford semifinal. The Falcons lead that series 3-0 and can complete a sweep of their own with a win in Brantford Thursday. Game 5, if necessary, would be in St. Catharines Friday.
Passero said the team attempted to keep things as normal as possible before the game despite what was on the line.
“You try to keep it business as usual but everyone’s got it on the mind that there’s a potential for a sweep here and something that is pretty special,” he said.
The Meteors have been playing some of their best hockey of the season since dropping a pair of games to Cambridge early in the quarter-finals.
“I think those two games that we lost there, maybe our younger guys thought it was going to be easier than it is,” Passero said. “You can only tell players so many times how tough it’s going to be until, you know, they get smacked in the mouth. So I think our veterans did a really good job of pushing us through the Cambridge series and then the younger guys in this round really stepped up.”
Danny Adamo kicked off the scoring for the Meteors with his third goal of the playoffs seven minutes into the first period.
Zachary Naherne and Eric Cunningham traded goals in the second as the Mets took a 2-1 lead into the third. Aiden Zimmerman then salted the game and the series away with his third of the post-season at 19:30 of the third.
John Lloyd had another solid game between the pipes for the Meteors with 34 saves.
Keegan Jackson kicked out 40 shots in goal for Caledonia.
The Meteors will now get a chance to catch their breath before the finals.
“We’ll have a couple days off here, then get back on the ice on the weekend and just try and get ready for both teams depending on who’s going to be coming our way,” Passero said. “We have to worry about ourselves. I think the big part is long as our game’s in the right shape I think we’ll be more than fine.”
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