Meteors hold off Corvairs in opener
The Fort Erie Meteors rode the momentum of a semifinal win over the St. Catharines Falcons into the opener of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference best-of-seven championship final series.
The Meteors edged the regular season champion Caledonia Corvairs 3-2 in Caledonia in their first appearance in the league finals in 33 years.
“The guys weren’t too happy with me that I made them start one-and-a-half days after Game 6 but I knew we would have the playoff intensity to come in here and push the pace a little bit and we did,” Meteors general manager/coach Nik Passero said. “We jumped out early. Our big guys scored big goals and (goaltender) Charlie (Burns) played well.
“It was a good playoff effort.”
Kyle Adamo opened the scoring for Fort Erie with his seventh of the playoffs eight minutes into the first period. Brayden Russell tied things up later in the period for the Corvairs.
Rylan Masterson gave the Mets a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at the 8:32 mark of the second. Less than a minute later Chaka-Benjamin Ntumba-Munto netted his third of the post-season as Fort Erie took a 3-1 lead after two.
“It’s nice to get a two-goal lead but then we get a five-on-three and we have to find a way to make it 4-1 there,” Passero said. “That’s something we will go to the drawing board with but we held strong.”
Golden Horseshoe Most Valuable Player Jayden Lammel scored four minutes into the third to narrow the gap to 3-2 but that is a close as the Corvairs would come.
“We gave up one on a fluke play that I don’t think will happen again, so we’re happy with our effort,” Passero said. “We had to defend pretty hard in the third.”
The Meteors have a chance to go up 2-0 on home ice Saturday.
“We’ve kind of struggled at home here in the last week-and-a-half so we have to find way to win at home in front of our fans but we’re excited for it,” Passero said.
Earlier in the day, the GOJHL named Passero as the winner of the Tom Kelly Memorial Trophy as Coach of the Year.
“It’s nice to get but it’s also a staff award,” Passero said. “We have an amazing group here of guys and ladies that help us out with everything and it’s more of a staff award and more of a reflection of what’s going on here. That’s what the buzz is all about and this is just another accolade to put up there with the staff.”
Mets centre Liam Beamish was named the winner of the Brent Rubel Award as Rookie of the Year.
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