CALEDONIA – If time flies when you are having fun, it must have seemed like a good one hour practice for the Caledonia Pro-Fit Corvairs, while on the Pelham Panthers bench it must have felt like skating uphill for six hours.
The Corvairs outshot Pelham 50-14, and out-scored them 9-0 Saturday night at the Haldimand Centre Arena in Caledonia.
For a game that was all but won and lost, the third period turned a tad ugly but it was nothing more than the collision of frustration on one side, with a bit too much swagger on the other.
But games like this are good for the winning team’s individual statistics, and in this case, Zach Core was the big winner with two goals and an assist.
It was certainly not a walk in the garden at the Gale Centre, Friday night against the Niagara Falls Canucks where the Corvairs suffered a rare loss — their fourth of the season — by the score of 5-4.
Trent Mallette surprised the Canucks with a quick attack, scoring 23 seconds into the game. That only served to be a wakeup call for Niagara as they slowly took the period away with three goals before the period ended.
It was the Canucks turn to surprise the opponent right off the face-off and Frank Pucci made it a 4-1 game at 32 seconds of the second period.
Holden Hrysko clawed that one back but Harrison Cottam put Niagara up 5-2 after two periods. It hasn’t been often the Corvairs have had to look up at a mountain this size heading into the third period, bit they responded well. Quentin Maksimovich scored a shorthanded goal at 5:02 and Evan Bidenti made it a one-goal game with eight minutes left to play.
Caledonia was unable to take that last step toward saving the game from the fire as the Canucks held on to the final buzzer.
While all of this was going on, the St. Catharines Falcons have snuck up behind the Corvairs to finish the week tied with Caledonia for first place, each with 53 points.
Tuesday night, Dec. 13th, the Pro-Fit Corvairs will be in Buffalo to pick up two easy points against the winless Buffalo Regals. But with the Falcons and the Corvairs occupying the same perch, taking anyone too lightly could bring unwanted results.
Saturday, Dec. 17th, Welland Canadians are in Caledonia. They close their four-game home stand Tuesday, Dec. 19th against the Thorold Blackhawks. They close out the pre-Christmas Break schedule Wednesday, Dec. 21st, at home to Ancaster.
St. Catharines faces Niagara Falls twice and one against Thorold before the break.
