CALEDONIA – The playoff history between the Caledonia Pro-Fit Corvairs and the St. Catharines Falcons goes back a few seasons. In hockey it is true that familiarity breads contempt, and there is no love lost between these two rivals.
Last year the Falcons and Corvairs battled tooth and nail for the Sutherland Cup, with Caledonia squeezing out a close Game #7 win.
This year, after the Corvairs took Games #1 and #2 in the conference final, the Falcons clawed back a win after double overtime in Game #3, with Game #4 hosted back in St. Kitts Monday night.
The Falcons got their fans fired up early with Jake Evans scoring only 45 seconds into the game. Matthew Hore took advantage of a powerplay opportunity to tie the game at 1-1 by the end of the first period.
Bradley Lee put the Falcons on top in the second frame and Ryan Doucette made it 3-1 for St. Catharines only 29 seconds into the third.
The Corvairs proved why they are the defending Sutherland Cup Champions by mounting a comeback on the strength of goals scored by Jake Brown, and two by Tyler Lazore for the character win.
That puts the Falcons in a must-win situation when they meet again for Game #5 on April 1st at the Haldimand Centre Arena at 7:30 p.m.
It took overtime to defeat the St. Catharines Falcons in Game #1 of the best of seven series, but the Caledonia Corvairs did it with a 4-3 win at the Haldimand Centre last Wednesday, March 25th. Jake Brown both opened and closed the scoring with his first goal of the game at 2:57 and the game winner at 6:48 of overtime. Austin McEneny accounted for the other Caledonia goal.
Game two, played Friday, March 27th, was also decided by one goal, but this time the Corvairs won it in regulation time with a late game powerplay goal scored by Tyler Lapore at 18:37. Also contributing for Caledonia were Matthew Hore and Erick Delaurentis.
Down two games to none with their backs against the wall, the St. Catharines Falcons took the Caledonia Corvairs to double overtime to win Game #3 with a score of 4-3 and put a little breathing room between themselves and the Corvairs.
St. Catharines used both of their goalies – Ben Csiernik and Jonathan D Ilario – to face a total of 65 shots, while Kevin Entmaa stopped 32 of 36 shots at the other end of the ice.
St. Kitts jumped into a 2-0 first period lead on goals scored by Tyler Morrison and Scott Grieve, then added another halfway through the second to hold a 3-0 edge with 30 minutes left in regulation time.
The Corvairs finally found the key to the Falcons’ net at 12:50, when Matthew Hore brought Caledonia into the game. Ryan Blunt and Tyler Lepore followed to even the score at 3-3 going into the third period. Caledonia outshot the Falcons 20-6 in the second period alone.
There was no scoring in the third despite several good chances at either end. Each goalie was tested with ten shots each in the first OT period, but no one could score, making a second OT period necessary. Tyler Morrison played the hero at the 13 minute mark to make it a 2-1 series rather than give the Corvairs a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, in the other two divisional finals, Elmira is up three games to one over Stratford, and the Leamington Fliers hold a 2-1 advantage over the LaSalle Vipers.
