CALEDONIA – After last week’s games, the Caledonia Pro-Fit Corvairs find themselves tied for first place with the surging Welland Canadians in GOJHL Jr. B hockey action. The Canadians have played one more game than the Corvairs but both teams have 13 points.
Behind them is the St. Catharines Blackhawks who are two points back, but hold one game over Caledonia and two games over Welland heading into this week’s games.
Saturday night the Buffalo Regals arrived at the Haldimand Centre Arena looking for their first win as a franchise, but couldn’t against the Corvairs who easily defeated them 9-0.
Ryan Punkari scored two first period goals while Evan Bidenti, Austin Ulett, and Zachary Core added one apiece to end the first 20 minutes with the Corvairs leading 5-0. Ulett Core and Alexander Gonyou built on that to take an 8-0 lead after two periods.
The Corvairs seemed to take a little mercy on the Regals in the third with the only goal of the period coming, shorthanded, from Bailey Fletcher.
The night before, the Fort Erie Meteors were in Caledonia and took it on the chin, 5-1, with Caledonia outshooting the visitors more than 2 to 1, at 49-22 in another lop-sided win.
Evin Badenti scored two, and Christian Montachino, Kyle West, Quentin Maksimovich added goals for Caledonia with Chace White spoiling Daniel Chenard’s shutout bid with less than one minute to play.
Spencer Sullivan and Ryan Punkar got tangled up at 13:44 of the second period for a little extra curricular activity. When the fur stopped flying Punkari got a double minor for roughing after the whistle, and a 10-minute misconduct for inciting an opponent. Spencer had the book thrown at him with across-checking major, plus game misconduct, a double minor for roughing after the whistle, and a misconduct for inciting.
Caledonia’s Brandon Lindberg was heavily penalized following a head checking incident receiving a two-minute minor plus 10 minutes and a game misconduct on the play.
To be fair, the Corvairs had an easy time of it this week against two of the bottom dwellers of the league. But this week should be more of a challenge against fourth place Thorold, Thursday night in Thorold, St. Catharines Saturday night in Caledonia, before hosting the fifth place Ancaster Avalanche Sunday night.
