Welland loses to St. Kitts
KENTON WOLFE
The St. Catharines Falcons won their third straight junior B hockey game Friday night, beating the visiting Welland Jr. Canadians 4-2 at Jack Gatecliff Arena.
The Falcon’s penalty kill denied their opponents on all five penalties they took through three periods. Despite going scoreless on their first four opportunities, the Falcons ended the game with two power-play goals on eight chances with the man advantage.
Welland outshot St. Catharines 37-33.
Falcons forward Noah Perlic opened the scoring early in the first period on a rebound after a dumpin by rookie Carson Eden.
Welland forward Matt Hobbs notched the only goal of the second period, scoring short-handed to tie the game.
Falcons head coach Dan Fitzgerald, whose team scored a 7-3 road win Saturday night versus the Ancaster Avalanche, wasn’t happy with his team’s effort in the first two periods of the game against Welland.
“Outside of (goaltender) Owen Savory, I don’t think anyone really had it tonight,” he said. “Our fourth line played really well all night. I thought they were very good. Even our third line at time had it. Some of the other guys had their moments.
“Overall this was far from the effort we expect out of this group.”
St. Catharines forward Matt Baumann recorded his second goal of the season, opening up the third period scoring on the power play.
Welland defenceman Daelyn Minovski tied the match shortly after. Falcons forward Evan Miller scored the eventual game-winner.
St. Catharines defenceman Matt Busby scored an insurance goal on the power play later in the third period.
Despite scoring on the twice on the power play, Fitzgerald was unhappy with his team’s performance with the extra man.
“We expect to have a very good power play,” said Fitzgerald. “We have some very talented players on it. We just weren’t ourselves today.”
Welland, 3-2-1-0; returned to the ice in a home game against the Niagara Falls Canucks, 2-4.
Next action to for the secondplace Falcons, 5-1, is Tuesday night on the road against the Golden Conference-leading Caledonia Corvairs, 5-0.