Corvairs cruise to 3-0 lead

Caledonia pushes defending champions to brink of elimination

The Caledonia Corvairs are one win away from advancing to the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Golden Horseshoe Conference final for the second year in a row and for the seventh time since moving from the Midwestern Conference for the 2013-14 season.

No. 1 seed Caledonia could clinch a berth in the third round of the junior-B playoffs as early as Thursday night when it visits the fourthseeded Hamilton Kilty B’s at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena.

On Tuesday, the host Corvairs pushed the Kilty B’s to the brink of elimination in their best-of-seven semifinal and improved their postseason record to 3-0 with an 8-3 victory before an announced crowd of 713 at Haldimand Caledonia Community Centre.

Markus Dempewolf, Aidan Wilson, with two goals each; Evan Bradacs, Tyler Clark, Ethan Girard and Zachary Naherne scored for Caledonia,

which was swept by Hamilton four games to none in last year’s conference final.

Kaleb Frank, Gianmarco Caringi and affiliated player Ethan Brassard replied for the Kilty B’s.

Shots on net favoured the Corvairs by a 50-28 margin. Caledonia finished Game 3 of the series 0for-2 on the power play; Hamilton, 0-for-5.

A fifth game, if needed, would be played Saturday night in Caledonia with games 6 and 7 taking place Sunday in Hamilton and Tuesday in Caledonia.

The winner of the series goes on to face either the No. 2 seed Fort Erie Meteors or the third-seeded St.

Catharines Falcons in a best-ofseven final.

On Wednesday night, Fort Erie hosted Game 3 with the series tied at one win apiece.

The Corvairs earned a first-round bye after finishing the regular season first in the seven-team conference. The Kilty B’s defeated the No. 5 seed Welland Jr. Canadians in seven games in the opening round.

Caledonia took five Golden Horseshoe titles in a row from 2014 until 2018 before taking a year off in 2018-19. Pandemic restrictions cancelled all but the opening round of the playoffs in 2020 as well as the entire 2020-21 season.

In 2022, the Corvairs were swept in the semifinals by the Falcons, who went on to capture their second Sutherland Cup Ontario junior-B championship and second since 2012.

The Corvairs earned a first-round bye after finishing the regular season first in the seven-team conference. The Kilty B’s defeated the No. 5 seed Welland Jr. Canadians in seven games in the opening round