Meteors end championship season with loss
Road defeat eliminates Fort Erie from Sutherland Cup contention
Hopes of bringing a Sutherland Cup junior-B hockey championship to Fort Erie for the first time were dashed Friday night when the Meteors fell short in their final game of qualifying.
A 3-2 loss to the host St. Marys Lincolns dropped Fort Erie to 1-3 in the round-robin qualifier, setting the stage for a best-of-seven Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League championship final between St. Marys and the Listowel Cyclones.
The Lincolns, champions of the league’s Western Conference, led 2-1 heading into the second period and scored the eventual game-winner on a short-handed goal 2:16 into the middle frame.
Fort Erie’s Blake Hall made it a one-goal game with his sixth of the playoffs later in the period, but Lincolns goaltender Brandon Abbott shut out the Golden Horseshoe Conference champion Meteors the rest of the way.
“It’s tough winning a championship and losing your last game — it doesn’t usually happen that way — but I’m very proud of these guys and forever grateful for everything they have done for me,” Meteors general manager-head coach Nik Passero said.
While he acknowledged that the Lincolns are a “good team,” they weren’t head and shoulders above the Meteors in terms of compete level in the second-to-last contest of the six-game tournament.
“We probably deserved better tonight. It was the best game we played probably since the beginning of the Caledonia series,” Passero said. “I really like our game tonight.
“The puck just didn’t fall for us.” Abbott, an overager, earned the win and improved his playoff record to 14-4. Charlie Burns, 18, fell to 12-8 and ended the post-season with two shutouts, a 2.07 goalsagainst average and a .929 save percentage.
Shots on net were 37-35 in favour of St. Marys. Each team went 0for-3 on the power play.
Zac Mizzi, with his first of the post-season, also scored for Fort Erie, which took the ice hoping to sweep the Lincolns in the double round-robin qualifying tournament and remain in contention for a Sutherland Cup berth.
Jaden Lee, Luke Bogart and Luca Spagnolo (short-handed) all scored for St. Marys.
The Meteors edged St. Marys, 2-1, in overtime at Fort Erie Leisureplex in their second game of the tournament after falling 6-1 to Listowel on the road.
Fort Erie also lost 4-1 to the Cyclones on Wednesday night at home, while the Lincolns scored a 2-1 victory in their first game against Listowel.
Qualifying wraps up Sunday with St. Marys visiting Listowel.
As many as 22 players from Fort Erie’s first championship team since 1979 are eligible to return next season.
However, Passero doubts the number will be that high.
“I think we have a lot of guys who will be making the next step,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll have that many back.”
Chaka-Benjamin Ntumba-Muntu and Hall will be moving on as 20-year-olds.
“I just want to say I’m thankful for them for trusting us with their final junior season,” Passero said. “I hope we made them proud.”
He couldn’t say enough about this year’s team and their impact on the community.
“I’m proud and I’m grateful. They brought something to this town that no one ever thought would be close to existing,” Passero said. “They’ll be remembered in Fort Erie for the rest of their lives.
“I’m proud of these guys. They did everything they could.”
The first conference championship in franchise history — the Meteors were playing in the final season of the Niagara District junior-B Hockey League when they won it all 45 years ago — won’t be a one-off if Passero has anything to say about it.
“It’s taken us three years to build to get to the point we are now,” he said.
“We just have to keep pushing the envelope building this program to what we now know it can be.” “We’ll be back.”
St. Marys is seeking its third Sutherland Cup title and first since 1976, while Listowel took its lone Ontario junior-B title in 2018.