By Kenton Wolfe | November 26, 2017

The St. Catharines Falcons fell to second place in the GOJHL Golden Horseshoe Conference over the weekend, splitting their games 1-1.

Friday night, St. Catharines took on the Fort Erie Meteors at the Jack Gatecliff arena. The Falcons romped the Meteors 9-4 in an uneven tilt. Captain Michael Davies lead the way with three goals to give St. Catharines their fifth straight win.

Falcons forward Romaeo D’Intino opened the scoring early, capitalizing on a pass from defenseman Perth Swick. Just 80 seconds later, Davies added his first of the match on the penalty kill. St. Catharines penalty killing continued to be strong, killing off seven of eight on the evening.

Fort Erie would answer mid-way through the period with a goal from forward Alex McAteer. Davies closed the first period with his second goal.

St. Catharines rookie Carson Eden scored his sixth of the season in the second frame. GOJHL leading scorer Lucas Smilsky added to the Falcon’s lead with a goal a few minutes later. Fort Erie answered with goals from Kevin Weaver-Vitale and Mike Masotti. Davies finished his hattrick performance with a goal on the power-play. Much like the Falcon’s penalty kill, St. Catharines received strong execution from its power-play with two conversions on six opportunities. Arber Xhekaj concluded the second period for the Falcons with another shorthanded goal.

Defenseman Tyler MacArthur and forward Tanner Ferreira added insurance goals for St. Catharines in the final period. Fort Erie capitalized on a late power-play, with Luca Mazzo scoring in the final minute of the game.

Falcons goaltender Owen Savory stopped 31 of 35 shots against, while his teammates directed 38 shots at the other net. Davies received a major penalty late in the game resulting in a one-game suspension.

Saturday night, the Falcons hit the road to take on the Caledonia Corvairs at the Haldimand Centre. Depsite a late game push from St. Catharines, Caledonia took the match with a 5-2 decision.

Caledonia received an early goal from forward Joshua DeFarias and did not relinquish the lead. TJ Hughes scored again for Caledonia in the first period with a power-play goal. This proved to be the only special teams goal of the night for either club, with Caledonia scoring on one of six opportunities and St. Catharines failing to turnover on seven.

Hughes added his second goal of the game in the second period. Caledonia forward Sean O’Brien scored just 20 seconds after, giving the Corvairs a 4-0 lead. Falcons Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald chose to make a goaltending change after this, relieving Owen Savory, who made 17 saves, in favour of new goaltender Dillon Larmarche.

Lamarche, who made 8 saves on 9 shots, is a St. Catharines-native, played his first action for the Falcons after being signed earlier in the week. Lamarche played 33 games for the Pelham Panthers in 2016/17.

Ferreira scored in the final minutes of the second period off a pass from emergency call-up Holden Rogers. Rogers last played for St. Catharines during their pre-season, scoring multiple goals before being returned to Niagara North Midget AAA minor hockey.

Caledonia scored their final goal of the evening in the third period from Griffin Roubos. Falcons defenseman Matt Busby brought St. Catharines within three goals, scoring while his team pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker.

St. Catharines looks to get back to first place on Friday, when they return home to take on the Pelham Panthers at the Jack Gatecliff Arena.