Falcons fall short in comeback
4-0 hole too deep as St. Kitts swept by Caledonia in Golden Horseshoe final
This is not how the St. Catharines Falcons wanted their golden anniversary party to end.
Instead of watching the Caledonia Corvairs advance to the Sutherland Cup tournament for the fifth straight year, the Falcons wanted to celebrate their first half century with a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League championship.
Caledonia, of course, came into Game 4 Monday night with other ideas, and the top seed in Golden Horseshoe Conference forced them to the top of the agenda with a strong start and enough of a finish to sweep second-seeded St. Catharines four games to none.
Visiting Caledonia dominated play in the first period outshooting the Falcons 16-4 and outscoring them 4-0 on their way to a 5-2 victory.
To their credit, St. Catharines came back and outscored the Corvairs 2-1 the rest of the way.
General manager-coach Frank Girhiny said what he will remembered most about this year’s team is how they refused to give up.
“We’re just proud how they responded after the first period,” he said. “Those two periods, we played everything we had, with the lineup that we had, and we left everything on the ice.
“It could easily have gone south and they didn’t.”
St. Catharines battled the Corvairs “right to the end” with
three of their top players — Liam Dunda, Dakota Miskolczi, suspensions; Carson Edwardson, injury — out of the lineup.
“Three big-time forwards that are strong and heavy,” he said. “That’s what we need to play against these guys.
“Yeah, it was disappointing, but when you look at the series
I’m not surprised.”
Though they lost in the conference final to Caledonia for the fifth year in a row, Girhiny was proud of the team’s play in the playoffs and over the course of the season as well.
“At the end of the day, not too many teams can beat those
guys,” he said of the Corvairs. “They’re just deep, heavy.”
Girhiny’s heart went out to the six 20year-olds on the Falcons who are ineligible to return for another season.
“It was so hard to see, they wear their heart right on their sleeve,” he said of Matt Busby, Michael Davies, Liam Dunda, Tyler MacArthur, Owen Savory and Lucas Smilsky.
Savory only spent two seasons between the pipes in St. Catharines, but the Cambridge native said he will never forget being a Falcon.
“I can’t even say what I am going to miss the most,” said Savory, the Golden Horseshoe Conference’s most valuable player during the regular season.
“A lot of people walk through the (dressing room) door, and a lot of people have walked through the door in the past.
“I think the biggest thing you miss is the friendships you make when you come here.
Savory is taking his game to the next level by accepting a scholarship to play Division 1 hockey at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
Caledonia moved to the Golden Horseshoe from the Midwestern Conference following the 2014 season has advanced to the Sutherland Cup championship every year since.
Caledonia advanced to the final for the fifth year in a row, while St. Catharines was playing for the conference championship for the seventh consecutive year.
Golden Horseshoes: Liam Dunda, Carson Edwardson, Dakota Miskolczi, Perth Swick did not play for St. Catharines … Jesse Barwell, Nathan Ellis, Bailey Fletcher, Nolan Gardiner, Brad Lindsay were out of the Caledonia lineup.