Flyers sweep Raiders with pair of OT wins

After a first taste of playoff overtime before 1,044 fans here on Thursday, March 14, the Leamington Flyers topped that with a come-from-behind game four thriller on Saturday to sweep their first-round series over Georgetown. 

In that fourth game, the Flyers unexpectedly found themselves down 5-3 in the third but rallied to tie it and quickly won  the game in overtime. 

Thursday’s game was a one-goal affair and one which the Flyers might have won in regulation except for a Georgetown goal with 52 seconds left that knotted the game and sent the contest to a nail-biting overtime frame that went nearly its full length. The Flyers scored the game-winning goal over 18 minutes into extra time to win the game 3-2 and lead the series 3-0.

The opening period was scoreless as the Flyers tested Raiders’ starter Aiden Berry 17 times while Leamington’s Gatto handled only four shots. 

At 1:19 of the second, Raiders’ forward Kristian Lamanna sliced a low shot from the left lane that skipped past Gatto, making it 1-0 Georgetown.

The contest remained that way until the Flyers’ dented Berry’s armour at 6:56 of the third period when Matthew Thomas and Landon Bernard connected passes to Brayden Degelas, who rifled a shot from the top of the slot that knotted the contest.  

Like in the opening frame, the Flyers offense dominated the period, outshooting Georgetown 18-7. With Nathan Leek sidelined for a boarding penalty, the Flyers had two shorthanded odd-man rushes but did not score on either one. A third shorthanded breakaway was the charm as Cayden Faust raced down the ice, closed in on Berry, and backhanded the go-ahead goal. The Flyers’ defense kept the Raiders off-stride until Georgetown was able to pull Berry for an extra-attacker with 1:25 remaining in the period. 

At 19:08, Georgetown’s Cole Zurawski beat Gatto to send the game to overtime.

Georgetown had plenty of quality chances during the first five minutes but once again Gatto proved his worth as he made some outstanding saves. During the overtime’s second half, the Flyers’ offense got hungry and the battles for puck possession were quite intense. 

Late in the frame the Flyers unleashed a relentless attack pressuring the Raiders’ defense. Leamington reaped the results at 18:09 when Cade Bell tried knocking the puck past Berry from in close. But Berry fell to the ice and Chris O’Flaherty was right there to slip the puck past him and win the game for the Flyers.   

Saturday at Georgetown for game four, the Flyers fell behind 2-0 in the first period and narrowed it to 2-1 in the second before a wild third period that saw the Flyers score four times and the Raiders three.

For goalie Sebastian Gatto and his defense, it wasn’t their best effort but when it came down to the later stages of the third and the overtime, he got the job done. 

Anthony Ciaramitaro started the Flyers’ scoring early in the second on a powerplay. 

Griffin Grundner tied the game 2-2 two minutes into the third, and minutes later Cam Arquette put the Flyers ahead. 

That lead did not last long as three Raiders’ tallies made it a 5-3 contest by the eight-minute mark. The Flyers rally got into gear at 16:12 when Chris O’Flaherty’s goal drew Leamington to within one. 

Arquette fired his second of the game to tie it 24 seconds later. 

In the overtime captain Cayden Faust potted a rebound from the right side after Matthew Thomas and Arquette laid the groundwork. 

With the 4-0 series win, the Flyers will now face the second-place Milton Menace who beat Burlington. 

Stayed tuned to local media for the upcoming schedule.