CALEDONIA – The Chatham Jr. B Maroons came within 28 seconds of playing the giant killer against the now 13-0 Caledonia Pro-Fit Corvairs on Saturday night in Chatham. However, the Corvairs came from behind to force the game into overtime, which Caledonia eventually won.
The Maroons, who have been struggling so far this season in seventh place in the Western Division, took the powerful Corvairs right to the wall. After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, Caledonia got one of those back at 7:31 when Kyler Nixon scored a powerplay goal assisted by Connor Murphy and Cody Brown.
Michael Verboom restored the Maroons’ two goal edge at 8:37 of the third period, sending a chill down the Caledonia bench. But it was the Caledonia powerplay unit that came through in the end. Connor Murphy drew Caledonia to with one at 10:50 assisted by Cody Brown and Connor Patton.
With victory within reach, Chatham’s Bayden Hopkins and Caledonia’s Nixon got simultaneous high sticking penalties at 18:51, but Hopkins pressed the issue further and was also assessed a roughing penalty on the play, once again activating the potent Caledonia powerplay unit. With 28 seconds remaining, Cody Brown tied the game with an unassisted extra man goal to send the game into overtime.
If that wasn’t enough to make Brown the most favourite player on the Corvairs bench, he did himself one better by scoring the game winner only 10 seconds into the extra frame from Murphy and Nixon. He was in on all four Caledonia goal collecting two goals and two assists and improved his statistics to 7 goals and 8 assists for 15 points since joining the team, five games ago.
Connor Murphy has also been hot to date and after picking up 3 goals and 5 assists this weekend, Murphy now leads the GOJHL in scoring with 8 goals and 25 assists for 33 points in 13 games.
In their defense, the Corvairs were on the tail of a three games in three nights weekend.
Friday night at the ILA the 1-9-2 Fort Erie Meteors landed at the ILA where they were manhandled by the first place Corvairs, 9-3.
Curtis D’Ortenzio got the start in goal for Caledonia and made 25 saves on 28 shots for the win.
In total, 14 players picked up points for the Corvairs in a well balanced attack from all lines, starting with Kyler Nixon’s Powerplay goal at 7:59 assisted by Matt Qulty and Connor Murphy. Jake Brown followed that at 11:12 with assists earned by Jeffrey Malott and Mitch Brown. Murphy closed the first period scoring at 17:48 from Cody Brown and Connor Patton.
The Meteors began the second period with a golden opportunity to get on the scoreboard when Jared Marino was awarded a penalty hot at 1:25. But D’Ortenzio was up for the challenge and he stopped him, one-on-one.
D’Ortenzio picked up an assist on Spencer Gourlay’s 4-0 goal scored at 4:04 with the other assists going to Nixon.
Nik Passero finally got things moving for the Meteors at 5:41 to make it a 4-1 game. Marlott added Caledonia’s 5th goal at 18:22 assisted by Murphy and Nixon.
Murphy was tagged with a goalie interference penalty at the end of the second period, which spilled into the third period when Fort Erie’s scored their second goal of the game on the powerplay at 16 seconds.
Booker Muir, Connor Patton, and Cosimo Fontana answered at 3:04, 6:51 and 7:18 respectively.
Steven Comegua was charged with a 5-minute major penalty for Checking from Behind, and a Game Misconduct, which gave the Meteors another powerplay, which they capitalized on for Fort Erie’s third goal, scored by Aaron Wanat.
Muir put the period on the end of the sentence with the Corvairs’ ninth goal assisted by Brier Jonathan and Jake Brown.
Thursday night the Corvairs were in Ancaster and came out with a 4-1 win with goals scored by Murphy, shorthanded, from Cody Brown, Greg Christmas from Mitch Brown, Cody Brown on a second period penalty shot, and Fontana on a powerplay from Nixon and Murphy. Ancaster’s only goal came at 14:30 of the third period, on a powerplay. In that department, Caledonia went 1-3 chances while Ancaster had a dismal 1-11 powerplay record.
The game deteriorated into a fight filled third period.
Although the Corvairs outshot Ancaster 43-18, goalie Blake Richard was hot as a two dollar pistal blocking 39 Caledonia shots. Colin Furlong has an easy night in the Caledonia net.
This week’s games include a Friday night visit in Niagara Falls, and Saturday night when they host the Buffalo Regals in Caledonia at 7:30.
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