Hockey / Fort Erie Holds On In Game 3, 7-6

Fort Erie Holds On In Game 3, 7-6

Date:  Source: OHA Fort Erie Meteors

It was a heart-pounding night at the Fort Leisureplex Monday night when the Fort Erie Meteors defeated the Welland Canadians in Game 3 of the opening round of the Golden Horseshoe Conference junior B hockey playoffs.

Fort Erie won 7-6 in a game that Fort Erie head coach Rob Hubbert described as “a nailbiter.”

“I thought our guys were tenacious on the puck. DeMarco did a great job,” he said of forward Richard DeMarco who had a goal and two assists for the Meteors.

Fort Erie cut Welland’s lead in the best-of-seven quarter-final series to 2-1 with the win before an announced crowd of 300 at the Leisureplex. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Fort Erie and action shifts back to Welland Arena the following night for the fifth game.

Hubbert, whose team opening the series on the road with 3-2 and 5-4 losses, said the Meteors treated Monday night’s game as an elimination game.

“We had to win this game, it was our Game 7. What a gutsy effort by our guys. Our guys just battled right through the whole game.”

He said the team needed to stay focused.

“It’s all about the Fort Erie Meteors. We can’t think about anyone other than the Fort Erie Meteors.”

Hubbert was particularly pleased by his team’s firepower on offence against a Front Row Sports Junior Canadians defence that allowed the second-fewest goals in the conference during the regular season.

“For us, we haven’t scored seven goals in, I think, three games and we score seven tonight. Congratulations to our guys. I thought they did a great job.”

The scoring was back-and-forth all night. Cameron Aitken opened the scoring for Welland with a power-play goal 10:36 minutes into the first period, but the Meteors’ Declan Conway tied the game 30 seconds later.

Fort Erie took the lead with a power-play goal by Anthony Passero at 15:16, but Welland’s Josh Allan tied the game less than a minute and a half later.

The Meteors’ Jared Marino scored four minutes into the second period.

Then Dakota Miskolczi added to Fort Erie’s lead at 7:32.

The Canadians changed goalies, switching Hunter Johnson from Chris Janzen, but that didn’t stop Vito Scaringi from scoring at 10:01.

Welland’s J.C. Thivierge scored a power-play goal at 13:33, but Fort Erie’s Dan Defranco answered back with a power-play goal of his own at 15:04.

Canadians’ Jake Shaw scored at 17:05 to shorten the gap between the two teams.

The Canadians came out swinging in the third period with a goal by Brayden Stortz less than two minutes in.

DeMarco increased Fort Erie’s lead to 7-5 at 9:50.

Canadians’ Cole McKnight’s goal at 17:58 wasn’t enough to keep Welland in the game.

Janzen saved 12 of 16 shots on goal and Johnson eight of 11 after taking over. Fort Erie’s Liam Conway saved 32 of 38 shots and went the distance between the pipes for the Meteors for the third game in a row.

Welland incurred 22 minutes in the penalty box on seven infractions while Fort Erie incurred 14 minutes on seven infractions.

Welland won the season series six wins to one, but Junior Canadians head coach Keith Osborne said his team’s record in head-to-head play against the Meteors is ancient history now that two teams are locked in an intense playoff battle.

“Whatever happened in the regular season doesn’t matter. Everybody is zero-zero,” he said after Welland’s win in the opening game of the first round series.

– with files from Tribune staff