Seventh heaven for Meteors
The Fort Erie Meteors refused to lose.
The Meteors, who simply don’t take no for an answer, once again rallied in dramatic fashion and are champions of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference for the first time in team history.
Down 3-1 with less than 12 minutes to play, the Meteors rattled off four unanswered goals to defeat the Caledonia Corvairs 5-3 in Game 7 before an overflow crowd Monday at the Haldimand County Caledonia Centre.
With the seconds winding down, the Meteors began to celebrate on the bench before flooding the ice and mobbing goaltender Charlie Burns, who was named Golden Horseshoe playoff most valuable player.
“It’s incredible. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Meteors general manger/head coach Nik Passero said on the ice while taking a break from celebrating. “It’s like a dream that keeps on going.”
The championship is the first for the Meteors since the 1978/79 season when they captured the Niagara District Hockey League title. Over the years, the organization has taken in share of lumps — they won only a single game in the 1993/94 season — but none of that mattered Monday.
“These kids are just out of their minds,” Meteors associate coach Anthony Passero said. “This is for all the times we came into this building and took a beating and when I was growing up we went into Niagara Falls and took a beating. It was so lopsided and we never had a chance with our budget. We have a bunch of good kids this year who don’t need to be paid to play hockey and look what they did.”
The Meteors were buoyed by a large group of fans who make the trek to Caledonia and stuck around for the post-game celebrations.
“There’s people here I haven’t seen in 10-15 years,” Nik Passero said. “It’s like it’s a home game.”
Meaghan Passero, who handles the club’s off-ice duties, watched from the bench and couldn’t help but think of her late father, former Mets owner/coach Tony Passero.
“My dad would be ecstatic and so proud of Nik and Anthony, all the players and the staff. He would be going crazy right now.” she said. “There’s no words to explain this.”
The Corvairs built a 2-1 lead heading into the third and appeared set to capture the title when Connor Doerbecker scored at the 7:32 mark to give Caledonia a 3-1 lead.
But the Meteors quickly answered back with a goal 20 seconds later by Blake Hall before Jaden Flora evened things up 3-3 at 8:57. Flora then gave the Meteors their first lead with his seventh of the playoffs at 12:18 before Sam Tonelli scored into the empty net at 19:34.
“Bend, but don’t break. We’re incredible. This is an incredible group,” Nik Passero said. “No fold in this group.”
Fort Erie captain Rylan Masterson said the Meteors aren’t finished yet.
“We’re not done. We want it all. We’re going all the way,” he said.
The Meteors now advance to the Sutherland Cup round-robin playoffs to take on the Listowel Cyclones and the St. Mary’s Lincolns. Dates will be determined Tuesday.
STATS PACK
Meteors 5 Corvairs 3
Mets rookie Jaden Flora with two goals.
Caledonia Corvairs: Tyler Clark (2); Clark Dunford (1); Connor Doerbecker (1).
Fort Erie Meteors: Jaden Flora 2 (7, 8); Kyle Adamo (10); Sam Tonelli (8); Blake Hall (4).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Fort Erie on Keegan Jackson (26); by Caledonia on Charlie Burns (37), Power plays: Fort Erie 0/1; Caledonia 0/4, Penalty minutes: Fort Erie 8; Caledonia 2.
Attendance: 1,500
Next up: The Meteors head to the Sutherland Cup round-robin playoffs to take on the Listowel Cyclones and the St. Mary’s Lincolns. Dates will be determined Tuesday.
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