Meteors want to take home ice away from top seed
Key to Fort Erie advancing to final is beating Hamilton on the road
Round 2 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Golden Horseshoe Conference playoffs opened Monday night in Hamilton with the Fort Erie Meteors taking the ice against the host Kilty B’s as the decided underdog.
Not only did the Meteors finish the regular season in fourth place while Hamilton topped the conference, they lost the season series to the Kilty B’s six games to one.
Something else that put Fort Erie behind the 8-ball heading into the best-of-seven semifinal? As the top seed, the Kilty B’s have home-ice advantage, and they have been nearly unbeatable — 24-2-1 — when playing at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena this season.
Taking away that advantage is the No. 1 priority for the Meteors if they want to face the winner of the Caledonia Corvairs-St. Catharines Falcons semifinal for the league championship.
“First, we have to beat them in their barn. They’re really good there, and that gives them a little bit of confidence,” Fort Erie general manager-head coach Nik Passero said in an interview Monday afternoon. “I think we have to come ready to go right away.
“I would expect the first period tonight is going to be a little bit of a feeling-out process.”
Hamilton’s regular-season success versus Fort Erie doesn’t necessarily foreshadow how the Kilty B’s will fare in the semifinals. The Meteors edged the Welland Jr. Canadians four games to three in league play but swept them 4-0 in the opening round.
“I don’t think it matters much,” Passero said of the importance of head-to-head play. “Against Welland, it was 4-3 in the season series but it easily could have been 6-1. I think in two of the games they beat us we dominated.”
There also were games versus the Kilty B’s in league play that could have gone either way, according to Passero.
“With Hamilton, I think there were a couple of games where we let slip away, where we were either the better team or equal to them,” he said. “We haven’t played them in a while, we’re ready to go.”
Passero listed team speed, defence and goaltender Duncan Nichols-Delay as Fort Erie’s strengths heading into the second round.
“We’re a fast team, we play quick. Our D are very solid,” he said. “I believe we have one of the best goalies in the province.
“I think he’s an absolute rock star back there. He’s proven it time in and time out.”
Since coming back together after a couple of days off, the Meteors have spent time breaking down film as well as practising systems on the ice.
Video review didn’t focus solely on how the Meteors played the Kilty B’s during the regular season.
“It’s not so much about what we did against them, it’s more of what Niagara Falls did to frustrate them and more of what we did against Welland that made us successful,” Passero said. “I think the guys know the game plan.”
Passero, a one-time Meteor who spent four seasons playing Division III at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, wants this year’s team to “play free and enjoy this moment.”
“It’s a privilege to be in the second round. They’ve earned it, but it’s a privilege,” he said. “There are not many people who get to win a seven-game series.”
Passero likes fourth-seeded Fort Erie’s chances against the league’s No. 1 seed.
“I’ll take my best game against any team in the league,” he said. “I think we have lots of offensive upside and, with Duncan in net and our D corps, I’ll take my best team against anyone in the league.”
Game 2 goes Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. at Fort Erie Leisureplex with game three back in Hamilton the following night.