St. Kitts-Falls series too close to call
Falcons have home-ice advantage but Canucks enjoyed the edge in head-to-head play
While three teams from the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Golden Horseshoe Conference were knocked out of playoff contention last week, the four teams advancing can still reach the goal set out at the start of the season: hoisting the Sutherland Cup.
A best-of-seven semifinal series between the No. 2 seed St. Catharines Falcons and the third-seeded Niagara Falls Canucks will draw attention to their respective communities with plenty of bragging rights on the line.
“It’s hard to believe this is the first playoff matchup between the two teams since 2010,” Canucks owner and head coach Frank Pietrangelo said. “Both communities are great supporters of junior hockey, and I think they will be excited to come to the arena to watch this series.
“The GOJHL is terrific hockey, and the final four teams in the playoffs are as good as any junior teams in Ontario outside the OHL in my opinion.”
St. Catharines finished the regular season in sole possession of second place in the nine-team conference and were owners of that spot for much of the campaign. The Falcons are a well-balanced team that will give the Canucks headaches throughout the second-round series.
“This is the time of year where as a team we need to be playing our best hockey,” Falcons general manager Frank Girhiny said.
“In my opinion, Owen Savory has been the best goalie in the GOJHL. Justin Felker and John DiLorenzo are two of the best shut-down defenceman in the league and then add forwards Zach Main and Lucas Smilsky into the mix, who had 95-point seasons, I believe we are well-balanced.”
However, St. Catharines shouldn’t sleep on the scorching hot Canucks. They have found a higher gear throughout the first four rounds of the playoffs and boast one of the deepest teams in the conference and are looking to prove that they are the best team in the junior B league.
“We have watched our team get better and better throughout the season,” Pietrangelo said. “I believe we are peaking at the right time.
“We have a ton of confidence right now, but, having said this, the Falcons are the favourites in this series and we just need to go out and play our best night in and night out.”
The Falcons hold home-ice advantage and, as Pietrangelo stated, are considered the favourites by many junior B hockey followers in the region.
However, it was the Canucks who won the season series, edging St. Catharines four games to two, nine points to five, in head-to-head play, winning the season series 4-2.
“We need to continue to play within ourselves and an old cliche ‘Don’t beat ourselves,’” Girhiny said. “We are built from our goaltending out. We get best performances game in and game out from everyone, so I would expect positive results this series.”
Both offences have been hot to start the playoffs, totalling 49 goals for. Their defence has been just as great, with the Falcons and Canucks surrendering 15 goals combined.
Canucks goaltender Zach Moore will likely battle the Falcons’ Savory in Game 1 tonight at Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines.
The two starting goaltenders sport save percentages of more than .930, which brings up the real question: Will it be better defence and goaltending that win the series, or offensive firepower?
Game 2 in the semifinal between the No. 1 seed Caledonia Corvairs and
the No. 4 seed Ancaster Avalanche was played Thursday night in Ancaster, with the three-time defending Sutherland Cup champion Corvairs leading the best-of-seven series 1-0 following a 7-2 victory Wednesday night in Caledonia.