Weekend junior B roundup: Mets split; Falcons rebound; Panthers drop two
The Fort Erie Meteors bounced back from a poor effort at home Saturday to defeat the Pelham Panthers 7-4 in a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League game Sunday afternoon in Pelham.
Meteors general manager/head coach Nik Passero will take the win, but was far from pleased with the weekend.
“Definitely have work to do. Not satisfied, but you know like I just said to the guys, it’s hard to score seven goals on any team in this league,” Passero said. “When we can throw the puck in net like that it feels good but as a whole I think we shot ourselves in the foot a lot today.”
Derek Smyth, Chris Reid, Zac Mizzi, Caleb Bidgood, Ethan Pepperall, Sam Tonelli and Aiden Zimmerman scored for the Mets.
Finn Moffett made 33 saves for the win.
Dylan Coers picked up a point on defence in his second game since being acquired from the Port Colborne Sailors for Dylan Lariviere.
The 20-year-old Port Colborne native figures to get significant minutes on the blue-line.
“I think he’s a guy that pushes the pace on our D corps,” Passero said. “I think we’ve got a really good D corps and we’re excited to get him in here and see what we can make. He’s going to help us with our power play and an offensive role. We’ll give him as many offensive starts as we can and see what happens.”
Nicolas Gilby, Dylan Leslie, Mason Goodfellow and Caleb Macleish replied for the Panthers, who dropped a 1-0 decision at Port Colborne Saturday.
“Came out cocky,” Pelham assistant general manager/coach Zac Rinaldo said. “Thought it was going to be easy because we played a good game last night. We just had no energy in the first. We had nothing. We were flat in the first and it showed in the scoresheet.”
The Meteors jumped out to a 4-1 lead after one period.
“I honestly think we responded really well after the first period, but it was a little too late between that and then the selfish penalties that we took just killed any momentum,” Rinaldo said. “We kept shooting ourselves in the foot every time we got momentum. It’s not a good recipe for winning.”
Rinaldo said Saturday’s effort, while strong, is in the past.
“It’s hard to look back though because that game is over, it’s done with and we can’t dwell on the past no matter how good or how bad it was,” he said.
The Meteors were coming off a 5-1 loss at home Saturday to the Hamilton Kilty B’s that saw Reid score the lone Fort Erie goal.
“I just think we weren’t really ready to go, which is tough on a Saturday night. We should always be ready,” Passero said.
Even Krell, Kyle Ferguson, Luca Campolo, Tyler Grbavac and Ethan Girard scored for the Kilty B’s.
The Meteors have a big week with games versus St. Catharines, Ayr and Port Colborne before going on the Christmas break.
“We have a huge week ahead of us here, a huge six points on the line. All teams are battling with us, so we’ve got to be ready to go,” Passero said.
Falcons top Junior Canadians
The St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons rebounded from a 6-3 loss at home Friday to defeat the Welland Junior Canadians 8-2 at Welland Sunday.
Treyson Dewar had two goals for the Falcons while Lachlan Sucher, Ally Mostafaie, Dillon Atkinson, Luca Santostefano, Trent Gates and Nathan Duplessis also scored.
Hayden Jeffery made 19 saves for the win.
Armando Rojo Bolton and Benjamin Moccia replied for Welland.
THIS WEEK
WEDNESDAY
St. Catharines at Fort Erie, 11 a.m.
THURSDAY
Pelham at Port Colborne, 10 a.m.
Caledonia at Hamilton, 10:30 a.m.
Fort Erie at Ayr, 7 p.m.
Welland at Brantford, 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Brantford at St. Catharines, 7 p.m.
Hamilton at Caledon, 8 p.m.
SATURDAY
Port Colborne at Fort Erie, 7:15 p.m.
Caledon at Caledonia, 7:30 p.m.
SUNDAY
St. Catharines at Pelham, 2:45 p.m.
Cambridge at Welland, 7 p.m.
Christmas break
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