Canucks tie series with Falcons
There was no shortage of energy in Gale Centre Wednesday night, as the Niagara Falls Canucks battled their way to a crucial 5-4 victory against the St. Catharines Falcons, tying the best-of-7 series at two wins apiece.
In Game 3 on Tuesday night, the Canucks erased a one-goal deficit and pushed the Falcons into overtime when forward Austin Wright finished off a beautiful feed from his partner-in-crime, Frank Pucci.
“We were hungry, I thought we played well but it was one of those uglier games with fatigue,” head coach Frank Pietrangelo said about his team playing in back-to-back games.
“It was really intense, both teams were a bit tired so you saw mistakes from players that were rather uncharacteristic but I thought it was a great game from both teams.”
It took the Falcons four shots Wednesday to solve Zach Moore as Riley McCourt netted the first goal of the game and continues his dominant playoff performance.
“He’s a young kid and has handled the pressure pretty good, he’s a quick and smart hockey player,” Falcons head coach Chris Johnstone said of McCourt’s playoff production.
“When you play a young kid on the power play as much as we do that says enough about him.”
The Canucks started the second period on the power play and just as the Falcons penalty expired, a point shot from captain Andrew Barbeau found its way to the back of the net and tied the game at one goal apiece.
Shortly thereafter, Canucks forward Patrick McCabe finished off a dazzling offensive sequence and, just like that, Niagara Falls was in the drivers’ seat.
“We had a good first period, we outshot them 10-5 and they scored on a wrap-around goal then we jumped into the lead,” Pietrangelo said.
“It’s give and take. We are two evenly matched hockey teams, you have to be able to adjust when the tide changes on you, and I believe we did that very well tonight.”
Despite leading after the first period, the Falcons were off to a rather slow start and midway through the second period the shots were 20-5 in favour of the Canucks.
“Niagara Falls has been desperate for two games and then, finally, we got desperate in the third which is a good sign we can take into Friday,” Johnstone said.
“They were down two games to zero and got back into the series with their win Tuesday night. They have some snipers over there so as long as we tidy up the little mistakes we will be fine.”
A Lucas Smilsky goal at the 13-minute mark gave the Falcons a much needed adrenalin boost and although momentum was beginning to swing in the Falcons favour, Canucks leading scorer Pucci split the St. Catharines defence and slid the puck through Savory’s legs, providing the Canucks with a 3-2 lead heading into the third.
Pietrangelo knew his team was playing a stellar hockey game and the Canucks bench boss continued to motivate his team to finish the game strong.
“Stay the course,” Pietrangelo said.
“These guys have a lot of confidence, we had confidence when we were down two games to none and we believed in ourselves. We have played well against St. Catharines all year nothing has changed as our philosophy goes.”
The Falcons offence came to life in the third, as Mitchell Webb and Zach Main netted two unanswered goals to tied the game at 4.
Nevertheless, the Canucks continued to persevere as Niagara Falls native Austin Wright picked the top left corner on Savory, a goal that would stand as the game winner.
“We were all fired up and ready to go after our overtime win in Game 3,” Wright said.
“We really got going in the second period, they scored those two goals to tie the game up and we needed everyone to preserve the lead once we got it again and we did.”
The last time Wright was at Gale Centre the Canucks got swept. He was pleased to get that win under his belt and the game winning goal.
“It was a nice breakout pass by Hill and coach has been telling me to shoot all series long so I took a shot and luckily enough it went in,” Wright said with a smirk.
As both teams continued to press the remainder of the game, it was the Canucks who prevailed at the end, picking up a much needed win at home — happy to head back to St. Catharines.
“If you would have asked me how I was feeling about the series last week obviously I wouldn’t have known what was going to happen,” Pietrangelo said.
“I think it’s well-deserved and it’s anyone’s series now.”