The Leamington Flyers have found a tough opponent in the Collingwood Blues as the Blues lead the best of seven second round series two games to one.
The Flyers dropped the series opener Friday night in Collingwood by a 3-1 count, then bounced back Sunday at home to take a 4-2 win and tie the series. On Monday back in Collingwood, the Blues prevailed 2-1.
In Friday’s game one, the Blues opened the scoring on a Nathan Omeri shot in the first and then scored on a Talan Palmer breakaway in the second to take a 2-0 lead. The Flyers finally scored midway through the third when Griffin Grundner found Joshua Cleary, who drilled a shot past Blues tender Maksim Corovic.
Despite a late delay of game penalty to Corovic, the Flyers couldn’t put one past him with the ensuing powerplay and the Blues iced the contest with an empty netter with nine seconds remaining.
Sunday’s game attracted a large crowd of 859 at Highbury Canco Arena. The Flyers responded with some of their best defensive work as they took 1-0 and 2-0 leads before a couple of lapses. Some pressure by the Blues resulted in a tied game late in the third.
While it appeared overtime was on the horizon, the Flyers eliminated that possibility quickly with two goals in the final minutes.
The Flyers had opened the scoring seven minutes into the game as Brayden Degelas and Vincent Gasquez connected with Ashton Darocy for a two-on-one break on which Darocy made no mistake for a 1-0 lead.
Both teams engaged in a fierce defensive battle with very few penalties being called. Flyers’ netminder Tre Altiman made some fabulous saves, including a stop of Ethan Faccina’s breakaway attempt early in the second period.
Ethan Walker and Ethan Tatomir hooked passes going right to left to find Degelas, whose left lane blast sailed past Collingwood starter Hagen Bach and made it 2-0 at 14:21.
The third period featured an abrupt shift in momentum as the Blues had the Flyers under siege for several minutes at the stanza’s start. During that spell, a misplayed Blues’ shot ended up behind Altiman to narrow the gap to 2-1.
The Blues called a time out with 5:29 left and as the final seconds of a powerplay ticked off, they tied the game.
With overtime looming, the Flyers struck to negate that thought as Walker beat Bach to put the Flyers ahead 3-2 with 1:20 remaining. The Blues had problems getting an extra-attacker on the ice until 19:25. Walker capped the victory with an empty-net goal with five seconds left.
Game three Monday night in Collingwood featured only two penalties – one per side. Collingwood grabbed a 1-0 lead and the Flyers’ Ethan Tatomir knotted it at 18:54 of the second period. It stayed that way until the Blues’ Will Hughes scored at 1:17 of the first overtime for a 2-1 victory and the series lead for the Blues.
Altiman stopped 23 of 25 shots, while Maksim Corovic halted 21 of 22 Flyers’ shots.
The Flyers will play game four at home Thursday, March 26 with puck drop at 7:10 pm, then back in Collingwood for game five on Friday. A rare Monday night home game will take place if the series goes six games with a 7:10 opening faceoff. Game seven, if necessary, will be in Collingwood on Wednesday, April 1.
