Meteors school Falcons
Give the Fort Erie Meteors an A for their effort on school day.
Playing before an announced crowd of 2,000 fans — most of which were very vocal elementary school students thrilled to be out of the classroom — the Meteors turned in one of their most complete efforts of the season to defeat the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons 6-1 in Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League game Wednesday morning at the Leisureplex.
Meteors coach/general manager Nik Passero loved both the atmosphere and the outcome.
“You always want to challenge yourself,” he said. “I thought bringing St. Catharines here on this type of occasion could go south in a hurry, but I thought we played so well.
“We were just north and south and we were fast, something probably in the last 10 days we haven’t been. A little bit of swagger to us. St. Catharines brings that out of you, they’re always the team that everyone wants to beat, so I think they automatically bring that intensity and that rivalry.”
Meteors defenceman and St. Catharines native Derek Smyth left no doubt he enjoyed contributing three points in a win over his hometown team.
“It was great,” he said. “The rivalry runs deep. They’re an OK team. Their style of play is hard to play against, they’re a gritty team, so once we figured out just to move the puck around them, then that’s our game.”
The Meteors took full advantage of the atmosphere, jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first before adding three more to lead 4-0 after 40 minutes.
“It’s an awesome game, awesome experience,” Smyth said. “I played in the Canadian Tire Center (with the Ottawa 67s) with a bunch of kids so this is awesome to see the community come together.
“It was a great game, I’m glad we could put on something for them.”
The Meteors, who knocked the Falcons out for the playoffs in the semifinals last season, have now taken two of the three meetings between the teams this season.
Fort Erie finishes up with games in Ayr Thursday and home to Port Saturday before taking time off for the Christmas break.
“Every point is at a premium here,” Passero said.
With the outcome no longer in doubt and obviously frustrated, the Falcons uncharacteristically lost their cool in the third period and ended up with several players tossed in the final minutes of the contest.
Overall, the Falcons were assessed a whopping 116 minutes in penalties compared to 50 for the Meteors. Fort Erie took full advantage, scoring three times on the power play compared to one for St. Catharines.
Falcons president of hockey operations and head coach Tyler Bielby was noticeably upset following the game.
“We’re down 2-0 with over 30 minutes of hockey to play. It’s not that tough of a hill to climb, it’s two shots,” he said
Bielby admitted the Falcons lost their cool.
“Yeah, absolutely. We were undisciplined. Can’t keep preparing every night to just show up and deal with that kind of stuff,” he said.
Bielby was well aware his club’s effort left something to be desired.
“We didn’t play well enough. We got beat, plain and simple,” he said. “Fort Erie showed up ready to play like they just had a big loss. We didn’t start on time. They built that lead, but my point is, it’s a half of a hockey game. It’s a two-goal game. Let the teams please decide the hockey games.”
STATS PACK
Meteors 6 Falcons 1
Fort Erie defenceman Derek Smyth with three points.
Fort Erie Meteors: Hunter Coley 2 (7,8); Kyle Adamo (14); Derek Smyth (5); Caleb Bidgood (5); Zac Mizzi (5).
St. Catharines Falcons: Lachlan Suchar (5).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Hayden Jeffery (39), by St. Catharines on John Lloyd (26); Power plays: Fort Erie 3/6, St. Catharines 1/4; Penalty minutes: Fort Erie 50, St. Catharines 116.
Attendance: 2,000.
Up next: The Meteors visit Ayr Thursday and play host to Port Colborne Saturday. The Falcons are home to Brantford Friday and in Pelham Sunday afternoon.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 6,500 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
