CALEDONIA — Mitch Fitzmorris put two goals up in Sunday night’s Jr. B 5–2 win over the Ancaster Avalanche at the Haldimand County Caledonia Centre, to bounce back from Friday night’s 4-3 OT loss in Niagara Falls and remain well ahead of the second place St. Catharines Falcons.
The Avs were fortunate enough, and their goalie Cole Ceci good enough, to escape the opening 20 minutes down by only one goal at 2-1. Caledonia got off to a strong start registering 21 shots in the first period alone. Only Cory Pawley and Fitzmorris were able to beat Ceci.
Michael Pollice scored for Ancaster. The tide turned in the second period when Mark Sinclair was called upon more heavily but the period ended with no additional scoring.
The game was actually much closer than the score may indicate. Owen Burnell tied the game at 2-2 five minutes into the final frame. Mitch Graham gave the Corvairs the lead back at 11:13 from Matt Rimac and Jonathan Schaefer.
As time wound down, the Avalanche pressed harder but could not find that goal to even the sides again which prompted a sixth attacker situation that backfired into Matthew Hore’s empty net, 4-2 goal.
Now, with two goals needed and nothing to lose, Ancaster kept Ceci on the bench and again they were burned with Fitzmorris’ second of the game, with Sinclair in on the assist.
The Pro-Fit Corvairs seemed to be a half-step ahead of the Avs for most of the night, but Sinclair turned back 30 of 32 shots he faced while the Corvairs’ awesome offense slowly turned up the heat.
Caledonia hopes to celebrate their third Sutherland Cup in a row this spring and are still tweaking the lineup to find that perfect mix balanced over all four lines which has become the Corvairs trade mark in recent years.
It hasn’t happened often this year, but Friday night, the Caledonia Pro-Fit Corvairs suffered a 4-3 overtime loss in Niagara Falls Friday night.
It was only the third loss of the 2015-16 season, two of them in overtime, which still produced a single point each. Caledonia had to battle back to force the OT period with Matthew Hore’s goal at 14:16 of the third period.
Niagara recorded the only goal of the first period but Volpe and Jake Brown connected in the second to take a 2-1 lead into the third period. The Canucks got those two goals back in the third to take the lead back before Hore evened the score.
Joseph Merdaca kept Niagara in the game despite being massively outshot by the Corvairs who couldn’t seem to rattle him. Mark Sinclair recorded the loss. Only 38 seconds into the extra frame, the Canucks ended the game which Blake Luscombe took exception to vehemently that he was assessed a misconduct for abuse of official as well as a gross misconduct for travesty of the game.
He will likely sit out a few games for his outburst. The Corvairs will open a home-and-home series Friday, December 11th, in St. Catharines before hosting the Falcons Saturday night at the Haldimand County Caledonia Centre. Tuesday December 15th they will travel to Pelham to face the Panthers.
