Falcons win at home over Panthers
The St. Catharines Falcons evened their season series 2-2 with the Pelham Panthers Friday night, winning a 3-1 decision on home ice at Jack Gatecliff Arena.
St. Catharines defenceman Arber Xhekaj led the way for the secondplace Falcons, scoring two goals to double his season total.
Falcons goaltender Owen Savory turned away all but one of the Panthers’ 26 shots on goal. St. Catharines directed 38 attempts at Pelham goalie Nicholas Kidd.
Xhekaj opened the scoring for St. Catharines in the first period, proving to be the only tally of the game’s opening 20 minutes. St. Catharines forward Michael Davies left the game after an undisclosed injury midway through the period.
“Feels good to finally get rewarded with one,” said Xhejak. “I was just putting the puck on net, saw some space and put it there.”
The Falcons built on their onegoal lead in the second with another goal from Xhekaj, proving to be the eventual game-winning goal. Pelham forward Christopher Webber answered for the Panthers, scoring with less than five minutes left in the second period.
Although they didn’t score a goal in the game, the Falcons trio of young forwards Jaleel Adams, Carson Eden and Evan Miller caught the eye of Falcons head coach Dan Fitzgerald.
“I thought they were really hard on pucks and sustained pressure,” Fitzgerald said. “They were key for us in carrying momentum throughout the night. They didn’t score but could’ve had 10 goals tonight.”
St. Catharines entered the game with the first-ranked penalty kill in the Golden Horseshoe Conference. The Falcons’ success continued, repelling all three of Pelham’s power-plays in the match. The Falcons scored on one of five opportunities.
“In a 3-1 game, some may say it’s too low-scoring for us,” said Fitzgerald. “Sometimes that happened and today we ran into a hot goalie but still grinded out the win.”
Forward Zach Lawrence added an insurance goal for the Falcons, scoring on the empty net with less than a minute to play in the third period.
“It’s easy to get distracted against a team like (Pelham),” said Fitzgerald. “They can get under your skin, but we did a good job of staying composed and overall they were pretty good.”
The Falcons hit the road today to take on the Fort Erie Meteors.