Falcons trail series 3-0

So far there has been no comparison between junior B hockey’s so-called second season and the first for the St. Catharines Falcons.

During the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season, they won the season series against the Caledonia Corvairs four wins to two and outscored the four-time defending Golden Horseshoe Conference champions 23-18 in six games of head-to-head play.

These most telling indicators of on-ice success have been completely reversed three games into the third round of the playoffs.

St. Catharines has scored only twice while surrendering 13 goals heading into Game 4 in the best-of-seven conference final.

Even more surprising, the second-seeded Falcons trail the No. 1 seed Corvairs three games to none.

Their latest setback was suffered Saturday night in Caledonia, where they dropped a 3-0 decision for their second loss in as many nights.

While the Corvairs peppered St. Catharines goaltender Owen Savory with 55 shots, his Caledonia counterpart, Pierce Charleson, had an easier time of it in comparison. He stopped 39 shots to record his second shutout of the series.

Adam Craievich broke a scoreless tie 8:11 into the second period, and it remained a one-goal game until Joshua DeFarias added two goals, the second on the power play, late in the third period.

The Falcons, who allowed four unanswered goals in a 4-2 loss at home Friday night, finished the third game in the series 0-for-5 on the power play. Caledonia was 1-for-8 with the man advantage.

Game 4 is 7 p.m. Monday at Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines, with a fifth game, if needed, back in Caledonia Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. faceoff.

This is the fifth Falcons-Corvairs conference final in a row, and Caledonia has won the previous four on the way to capturing three Sutherland Cup championships.

Providing the offence for Caledonia before an announced crowd of 1,041 at The Jack Friday night were Eddie Eschweiler, Bobby Harrison, Eddie Schulz

and Matt Watson.

Kyle West and Andrew Somerville opened the scoring in the game for St. Catharines.

Caledonia outshot the Falcons 21-20 and finished the game 1-for-11 on the power play. St. Catharines was 1-for-7 with the man advantage.

A combined 72 minutes were assessed in Game 2, with the Corvairs serving 15 minutes on seven infractions and St. Catharines 47 minutes on 15 infractions.

Caledonia advanced to the third round by sweeping the eighth-seeded Fort Erie Meteors in four games and sidelining the No. 4 seed Niagara Falls Canucks in five games.

The road to their seventh consecutive appearance in the conference finals was much rockier for the Falcons. After eliminating the seventh seed, the Pelham Panthers, four games to none, the Falcons needed seven games to dispose of the Ancaster Avalanche.

Each of the games against the thirdseeded Avs was hard-fought and one just nine seconds shy of going into a fourth overtime period.