Cyclones claim their second Cherrey Cup
ELMIRA — Jr. B hockey’s Listowel Cyclones looked to deliver a double-knockout punch to the Elmira Sugar Kings on Sunday night.
The visitors claimed the Cherrey Cup, the Mid-Western Conference title, with a 3-0 victory at the Dan Snyder Arena.
But Elmira lives on in the wacky world of the Sutherland Cup all-Ontario playoffs as the wild-card team.
Listowel would’ve needed a win on Sunday by a four-goal margin to put the Kings out of the playoffs and have the St. Catharines Falcons awarded the fourth and final berth in the Suthie playdowns based on playoff winning percentage past the first round and goal differential as a tiebreaker.
But Elmira had other ideas.
And so, the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s other conference winners, the Caledonia Corvairs and the London Nationals will join Listowel and Elmira in the Suthie playdowns.
On Sunday, with a sizeable chunk of the 1,529 fans in attendance supporting the Cyclones, Listowel claimed its second Cherrey Cup in history and first in a dozen years.
Listowel took the best-of-seven conference final in six games.
Each game in this best-of-seven Cherrey Cup final was a one-goal affair, including three OT decisions, except for Game on April 4, which was won by Listowel 4-2.
On Sunday, Listowel’s Cullen Mercer grabbed his 11th goal of the playoffs and the conference winner when he opened the scoring with a smoking wrister on the power play, nearing the end of the first period.
Holdyn Lansink added a pair of third-period markers to give the Cyclones a little breathing room in this Highway 86 series.
“The guys know the importance of this game,” Listowel coach Jason Brooks said before Sunday’s game. “You’ve got a team up against the ropes. You got to knock ’em out.
“This series has all be close, tough games,” he said. “At the end of the day, we just have to play our game. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.”
The series has largely been a goaltending dual between the conference’s reigning MVP, Jonathan Reinhart, and his counterpart in the Listowel cage, conference rookie of the year, Brock Baier, who traded sensational saves throughout.
The Cyclones battled back from a 2-0 series deficit to climb into the driver’s seat by winning the next four games.
“Our guys stayed together,” said Kings coach Tyler Canal before Sunday’s game. “We had a lot of new guys in our lineup, in different spots, in different roles.
“That’s a big part of why we do what we do. We want guys to get better and mature. The guys have done that over the course of the year. Just seeing how guys play together on the ice is good to see.”
Elmira’s Brock Philips served his first game of a two-game league suspension for head check.