Falcons play ‘full 60 minutes’ to stave off elimination

On Saturday, the St. Catharines Falcons had their backs towards the wall with little, if any, room for error.

On Monday, they are going to be again on their house ice hoping to finish a comeback in a best-of-seven Better Ontario Junior Hockey League Golden Horseshoe Convention semifinal towards the Caledonia Corvairs.

Thanks to 2 targets from Cameron Knight and Aiden Berry’s 24-save shutout, the visiting Falcons lived to play one other day following a 3-0 victory over Caledonia.

Blake Yetman beat Corvairs goaltender Keegan Jackson on a penalty shot to spherical out the scoring as St. Catharines tied the sequence at three wins apiece.

Falcons head coach Tyler Bielby referred to as the whistle-to-whistle win a complete crew effort.

“The younger males in our room confirmed up for a full 60 minutes tonight for Sport 6,” he mentioned. “That was the distinction in comparison with our final couple of video games.

“From our goaltender out, we’re very proud of the trouble.”

Bielby hopes the momentum from the victory within the must-win sport can carry over into Sport 7.

“It’s necessary we carry the identical effort on Monday and provides our house crowd one thing to cheer about after a few losses just lately at house.”

Caledonia, which was on the lookout for its third win in a row after trailing the second-round sequence 2-1 at one level, was outshot 27-24 earlier than an introduced crowd of 1,190 at Haldimand County Caledonia Centre.

It was solely the second time that the No. 4 Corvairs have been outshot by top-seeded St. Catharines in a rematch of final season’s semifinal.

The Falcons completed Sport 6 0-for-2 on the facility play and held the hosts scoreless on 5 alternatives with a person benefit.

It was the second sport in as many nights in a back-and-forth semifinal highlighted by every crew profitable two video games after Caledonia upset the defending Sutherland Cup champion 5-0 within the sequence opener at Seymour-Hannah Sports activities and Leisure Centre in St. Catharines.

The Falcons took the second sport, 2-1 in additional time, and the third, 3-2, earlier than the Corvairs scored 6-3 and 4-3 come-from-behind victories to push St. Catharines to the brink of elimination.

On Friday night time, the Falcons jumped out to a 2-o lead earlier than a season-high attendance of 1,089 of their new house.

Caledonia’s reply was three targets in a row, together with two on the facility play.

Nathan Robertson’s power-play aim for the Falcons knotted the rating at three-all at 12:37 however Brayden Russell’s even-strength marker a bit of greater than 5 minutes later accomplished the comeback and clinched the win for the Corvairs.

Caledonia outshot the hosts 33-24 and every crew completed the sport 2-for-4 on the facility play.

Calvin Petrovsky and Yetman, energy play, additionally discovered the again of the online for the Falcons. Steven Laforme; Ryan O’Donnell, energy play; and Nathan Duplessis, energy play; rounded out the Caledonia scoring.

The winner of this sequence will play the No. 2 seed Hamilton Kilty B’s in a best-of-seven last for the convention championship.

Hamilton eradicated the No. 3 seed Fort Erie Meteors within the different semifinal.

Final season, the Falcons bid farewell to now-shuttered Jack Gatecliff Area, the junior-B franchise’s house since its inception in 1968, by profitable their second Sutherland Cup championship and second since 2012.

Their highway to the title included sweeps of Pelham and Caledonia within the opening two rounds and a 4-2 victory over Hamilton within the Golden Horseshoe last.

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