There doesn’t appear to be much to choose from between the Fort Erie Meteors and the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons.
The teams finished tied with 36 wins and 12 losses for 74 points in the regular season and were even within a few goals of each other, both for and against.
The Falcons visit the Meteors Saturday in Game 1 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League best-of-seven semifinal playoff matchup and both head coaches have their own ideas on what the deciding factors might be with the teams so evenly matched.
“Details,” St. Catharines general manager/coach Tyler Bielby said. “Discipline will be very important for both teams and special teams will be very important just like they always are. Making sure we stay out of the box and give ourselves a chance to win every night is what our focus needs to be. I would imagine that’s what Fort Erie’s focus is too, make fewer mistakes than the other team.”
Fort Erie general manager/coach Nik Passero offered his take on what may be the deciding factors.
“Health and goaltending are the two biggest things, and maybe some special teams,” he said. “We’re pretty evenly matched.”
In goal, the Meteors feature Erie Otters prospect Charlie Burns, who fashioned a 2.46 goals-against average and .914 save percentage, as well as John Lloyd, who had a 2.13 GAA and .917 save percentage in 20 games.
Niagara IceDogs prospect Hayden Jefferey handled the bulk of the goaltending chores for St. Catharines compiling a 2.49 GAA and .925 save percentage in 36 games. Back up Cal Gardner more than held his own with a 2.24 GAA and .931 save percentage in 16 games.
The Meteors, who for years had more than their share of trouble versus the Falcons, this season dominated the season series winning five of the seven matchups, which may or may not mean much.
“It means something,” Bielby said. “It obviously allows you to get a pulse for the team you’re playing and the ability they have, so in this instance, the regular season matchup was tilted in their favour but we had some real close games.
“You don’t put a ton of weight into it, you put a ton of weight into how we’re feeling now and I think we match up. We were successful in our last matchup against them so you build off that.”
Passero doesn’t put much stock in the regular season.
“I don’t think it means too much because last year when we didn’t beat Hamilton we went into the playoffs saying it doesn’t matter so why does it matter now? Some confidence I’m sure but in the end it really doesn’t mean much,” he said.
Both Bielby and Passero predict discipline will be a huge factor in the series.
“Emotionally, we were pretty stable against them,” Passero said. “We didn’t get into crazy penalty trouble, our goaltending was good. I think we’re a mature group here that rides the wave pretty well.”
The Falcons ran into discipline issues from time to time in the regular season.
“This team has been a close group all year,” Bielby said. “We’ve dealt with some adversity throughout the season and kept coming out on the right side and have no reason to doubt ourselves or be paying attention to our competitor as much as we just pay attention to ourselves and how we’re going to prepare and be ready for the game. We have to continue to focus on not beating ourselves.
“We believe we can beat any team in the province at our best.”
Passero is eager to square off versus St. Catharines.
“The last 15-20 years, I bet we haven’t played them very much in the playoffs,” he said. “I played them one time. It’s exciting. I think it’s probably the two, at this point, best fan bases in the league. Two great rinks and I just think it’s going to be a pretty special two weeks.”
This series could easily go the distance and a win by either team would not come as shock.
BPSN predicts: Meteors in seven.
Game 1
Saturday, March 23 at Fort Erie, 7 p.m.
Game 2
Monday, March 25 at St. Catharines, 7 p.m.
Game 3
Wednesday, March 27 at Fort Erie, 7 p.m.
Game 4
Friday, March 29 at St. Catharines, 7 p.m.
*Game 5
Saturday, March 30 at Fort Erie, 7 p.m.
*Game 6
Monday, April 1 at St. Catharines, 7 p.m.
*Game 7
Tuesday, April 2 at Fort Erie, 7:40 p.m.
*if necessary
