Falcons top Hamilton in battle for second place
Next floor, the penthouse.
A 4-1 victory Monday night in Hamilton leapfrogged St. Catharines Falcons over the host Kilty B’s into second place in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Golden Horseshoe Conference.
Only the league-leading Niagara Falls Canucks, 16-2-0-1; now have more points than the 13-30-1 Falcons; in the eight-team junior B conference.
Hamilton fell to 13-5 – one point back of St. Catharines — with the loss in battle for second place at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena.
And the Falcons, the hottest team in the Golden Horseshoe, have two games in hand on the Canucks and one on the Kilty B’s.
St. Catharines’ last loss in regulation was a 4-2 setback Sept. 24 in Hamilton.
The Falcons have been on fire ever since, going 12-1 and earning at least one point in 13 games — and counting.
Carson Edwardson, with two goals; Andrew Somerville and Kyle West provided the offence as St. Catharines improved to 2-1 in head-to-head play with the renamed — and relocated — Ancaster Avalanche.
The Falcons were up 3-0 when Mason Reeves scored for Hamilton 3:13 into the third period.
Shots were 31-24 in favour of St. Catharines.
The Falcons finished the lone game on the league’s schedule 1-for-4 on the power play.
The Kilty B’s went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Dillon Lamarche earned the victory in net for St. Catharines, lowering his goals-against average to 2.84 while increasing his save percentage to .863.
Cal Schell, the author of a 1-0 shutout of the Welland Jr. Canadians in his last start, was tagged
with the loss.
A home-and-home series between the QEW rivals wraps up with the Falcons hosting the Kilty B’s in a 7 p.m. faceoff Friday at Jack Gatecliff Arena.
Upcoming action in the Golden Horseshoe has Welland, 5-13; at the Lockport Regals, 2-14-1; in western New York on Wednesday and the Pelham Panthers, 12-70-1; visiting the Thorold Blackhawks, 6-10-1.