By Kenton Wolfe | December 22nd 2017

It was a night of celebration for the St. Catharines Falcons.

In their last home game of 2017, the Falcons not only bested the Fort Erie Meteors 5-1, but welcomed back more than 100 alumni for a special pre-game ceremony.

As part of their 50th Anniversary season, the Falcons have been honouring a different decade of alumni each month. Former players representing teams from 1988-1997 took to the ice for a ceremonial puck drop. Also honoured were the 2016-17 AA Minor Bantam Garden City Junior Falcons, who were celebrated for a divisional OMHA Championship.

Goaltender Owen Savory made stopped 31 of 32 shots against, while Meteors net-minder Jacob Hearne allowed five goals on 35 shots against.

Falcons forward Tanner Ferreira scored just minutes into the first period to give St. Catharines an early lead. St. Catharines leading scorer Lucas Smilsky left the game with an undisclosed injury midway through the first frame. Ferreira added his second goal with just 14 seconds left in the period to give the Falcons a two-goal advantage after 20 minutes.

Just thirteen seconds into the second period, Ferreira completed his hat-trick performance by scoring off the rush. Falcons defenseman Tyler MacArthur added a goal, scoring from the point. Fort Erie forward Brady Lee added the only Fort Erie tally of the night.

Rookie forward Jaleel Adams reestablished the Falcons four-goal lead, proving to be the final goal of the game. Both teams were scoreless on the power-play with Fort Erie failing to turnover on four opportunities compared to the Falcons’ three.

The Falcons now enjoy a long break before playing again in Pelham to take on the Panthers on January 7th, 2018.