Meteors take first title since 1979
Fort Erie comes from behind to defeat Caledonia in Game 7
After taking care of the Corvairs in seven games, the Fort Erie Meteors are looking forward to parking Lincolns in the lot for also-ran teams.
Besides playing the St. Marys Lincolns in a double round-robin in the next round of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs, the Meteors also will have to weather the Listowel Cyclones to win their first Sutherland Cup junior-B championship.
On Monday night, the Meteors scored four unanswered goals in the third period for a 5-3 victory over the host Caledonia Corvairs to take a best-of-seven Golden Horseshoe Conference final four games to three.
It was Fort Erie’s first title of any kind since 1979, when the Meteors won it all in the former Niagara District Junior-B Hockey League’s final season.
The win was especially emotional for general manager-head coach Nik Passero, who was born into a junior-B hockey family and has bled Meteors orange and black his entire life as the son of the late Tony Passero, the team’s longtime owner.
“I’m relieved, exhausted, grateful. Grateful is a big one,” Nik Passero said. “My dad had the team 10 years before I was even born, so growing up I saw the triumphs, I saw the failures. Nothing quite this big.
“I’m just so proud of this group.” He was especially grateful for supporters who made the trip from Fort Erie and made their presence heard inside Haldimand Caledonia Community Centre.
“There were 600, 700 Meteors fans here chanting ‘Let’s go Meteors’ over their fans,” he said. It was incredible, the place was rocking.
“I’m just grateful for this opportunity and this group of guys who just keep on keeping on.”
Jaden Flora had two goals and Kyle Adamo, Blake Hall and Sam Tonelli (short-handed) also found the back of the net for No. 2 seed Fort Erie in the come-from-behind victory over top-seeded Caledonia.
Charlie Burns made 34 saves for the win, while Keagan Jackson, who forced Game 7 with a shutout in a 1-0 victory Saturday night in Fort Erie, was tagged with the loss.
Clark Dunford (short-handed), Tyler Clark and Connor Doerbecker scored for the Corvairs, who outshot their visitors 37-26.
Fort Erie finished the game 0-for-1 on the power play. Caledonia was 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
The Meteors improved their playoff record on the road to 8-1 and to 12-5 overall.
All three conference championships featured the top two seeds facing each other in a seven-game final, but the Listowel Cyclones of the Midwestern Conference were the only higher seed to win. They beat the Stratford Warriors four games to one, while St. Marys came back from a 3-2 deficit against the London Nationals to win the Western Conference in seven games.
On Nov. 10, the Cyclones edged Fort Erie, 5-4, in Listowel, and the Meteors lost, 2-1, to St. Marys on Dec. 15, also on the road.
“There’s unfinished business with both of these teams. They beat us both during the regular season,” Passero said. “We’re ready to go.”
He feels good about his team’s chances heading into the Sutherland Cup qualifying tournament.
“I think the way we defend we can win anything. I love our recipe for success,” Passero said. “After this day off, which these guys deserve more than anything, we’re going to get into the lab and get to work.”
The Lincolns are after their third Sutherland Cup and first since 1976. The Cyclones won their lone provincial junior-B title in 2018. Meteor writes — Caledonia’s loss in the Golden Horseshoe final was the team’s second in a row. Last season, they were swept by the Hamilton Kilty B’s … Hamilton finished third in qualifying as the Leamington Flyers defeated Stratford in seven games … The last Sutherland Cup winner from the Golden Horseshoe was the St. Catharines Falcons in 2021-22.