Meteors power past Falcons
Emotions boiled over on and off the ice Wednesday night in Fort Erie.
The Fort Erie Meteors topped the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons 4-1 before 1,050 fans at the Leisureplex in an emotional, chippy and sometimes dirty affair that saw the teams combine for 89 minutes in penalties and will see a handful of players suspended.
The Meteors now lead the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League best-of-seven semifinal playoff series 2-1 with Game 4 Friday in St. Catharines.
After the dust had settled, both Falcons general manager/coach Tyler Bielby and Meteors general/manager coach Nik Passero had some choice words, albeit on different topics.
Passero was incredulous after seeing Fort Erie defenceman Owen Penny jump St. Catharines forward Noah Read in the third period, which resulted in a nine-minute power play for the Falcons with the outcome of the game still very much in the balance.
“The nine-minute penalty is completely inexcusable,” Passero said. “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve seen in hockey in years by our guy. I just don’t understand how that happens, regardless of if their guy asked our guy to fight. You just have to know better and that’s going to cost us down the road at some point, being dumb like that.
“That’s crazy. They’re kids but still, you have to make better decisions than that.”
In the ensuing scrum, Fort Erie’s Zac Mizzi and St. Catharines Luke Gualtieri dropped the gloves which will see both players suspended as well.
The Mets led the Falcons 3-1 at the time of the melee with just under 12 minutes to play and did a superb job of holding off St. Catharines.
“Our penalty kill’s been great. When you need two goals they’re pushing hard and that’s a tough spot for them to be in too. Our guys did a great job,” Passero said.
Meanwhile, Bielby was perturbed with a number of things, starting with Fort Erie’s first goal less than six minutes into the game by Hunter Coley.
“It’s tough. I thought the game got decided in the first period, unfortunately we struggled to find the back of the net but the first goal of the game was a high stick. It went in, shouldn’t be a goal,” Bielby said. “First goal is a big goal in a playoff game, especially on the road. We didn’t get that bounce and it’s our job to make sure we answer back and we did.”
Treyson Dewar got the Falcons back on even terms a few minutes later with a power-play goal before Liam Beamish scored another goal with the man advantage later in the period.
“Outside of empty netters, going into the third period tonight, Fort Erie doesn’t have a five-on-five goal in the series,” Bielby said. “We have to stay out of the box and we have to find a way to score on the power play.”
Following a scoreless second period, the Mets added an insurance marker early in the third when Sam Tonelli scored before impressive rookie Jaden Flora scored into an empty net for his fourth of the playoffs at 17:29.
The Falcons were without captain Caleb Thompson, who was suspended for two games after the Meteors sent game tape in to the league following a boarding call on Thompson in Game 2.
That also did not sit well with Bielby.
“We’re not going anywhere, we’re here to stay,” he said. “Fort Erie can send in clips on my players to the league all they want, but we’re not going anywhere. I’ll play with six players if I have to if they want to keep doing that stuff and playing those games. We’re here to play hockey, we’re here to beat the best they have to offer, and I’m not worried about any of the other background noise.”
St. Catharines sniper Brenden Anderson went off the ice late in the game with what appeared to be a wrist injury.
“We lose two guys with potential broken wrists with no calls on the play and Gualtieri will be out for third man and Anderson, one of the league’s better players, maybe a broken wrist. It’s terrible,” Bielby said.
Passero expects the Falcons to put up a good fight Friday.
“This is an experience for our guys. We didn’t play great in Game 1 at home and we owed it to our fans and now they owe it to their fans for losing Game 2 so I expect them to be ready to go Friday,” he said.
Metscellaneous: Owen Cressman, Grant Spada, Nolan Stickland and Aiden Zimmerman were scratched for the Meteors . . . Colin Ewing, Caleb Thompson, Jordan Marconi, Calvin Petrovsky, William Moore and Tanner Hunt did not dress for the Falcons . . . The Caledonia Corvairs lead the Hamilton Kilty B’s 3-0 in their semifinal. Game 4 is Thursday in Hamilton.
STATS PACK
Meteors 4 Falcons 1
Fort Erie forward Liam Beamish with two points.
Fort Erie Meteors: Jaden Flora (4); Hunter Coley (3); Liam Beamish (3); Sam Tonelli (3).
St. Catharines Falcons: Treyson Dewar (3).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Hayden Jeffery (28); by St. Catharines on Charlie Burns (23), Power plays: Fort Erie 2/5; St. Catharines 1/8, Penalty minutes: Fort Erie 44; St. Catharines 45.
Attendance: 1,050
Next up: Game 4 in St. Cathairnes Friday at 7 p.m. Game 5 Saturday in Fort Erie at 7 p.m.
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