Flyers up 2-0 on Georgetown in opening playoff series

There couldn’t have been a better time for the Leamington Flyers to cure whatever had plagued them during the regular season’s final six games. Facing the Georgetown Raiders in their first round series, the Flyers won the series opener 6-2 at home last Friday night, March 8, then traveled to Georgetown on Saturday where they took game two 2-0. The Flyers now lead the best-of-seven series 2-0. 

“I was really happy with our team’s commitment to our game plan,” stated head coach Dale Mitchell after their 6-2 victory in front of 950 fans on Friday. “Of course, we didn’t like the end of our season but we knew we had to come out strong in front of our (hometown) crowd. Our effort in game one will have to continue in a similar manner and take it one game at a time.” 

Initially, fans may have wondered if the late-season jinx would stick around for playoffs and more, so when Georgetown grabbed a 1-0 and then 2-1 lead in the first period, after knotting the contest 2-2, there was plenty of Flyers’ fireworks.

The start of the game was delayed by about 30 minutes as an errant shot by a Georgetown player during warmups shattered the glass behind the net.

Georgetown struck first with an early goal, but the Flyers tied the score 1-1 at 6:16 when Alex Cunningham took Cayden Faust’s feed and deftly flicked the puck past Raider goalie Finn Marshall from a sharp angle. 

After the Raiders took a 2-1 lead on the powerplay, Cunningham and Matthew Thomas hooked passes on the powerplay to Cam Arquette, who rifled a shot that beat Marshall and knotted the game. 

From that juncture, the Flyers’ offense kicked into high gear while their defense kept Georgetown off the score sheet. 

On the heels of Arquette’s tally, Nick Mahy and Adrian Bosev sent Chris O’Flaherty to Marshall’s doorstep where O’Flaherty backhanded the go-ahead goal. 

Nathan Leek followed at the 18:00 mark when he potted Faust’s rebound into the completely open left side of the Raiders’ net. 

The crowd erupted loudly with three seconds left in the period when Faust and Arquette went on a shorthanded two-on-nobody break with Arquette zinging the fifth marker from the left side.

The second period was rather calm before Nathan Leek connected with Brayden Degelas, who rifled the final goal two minutes into the third. Gatto finished the game with 35 saves while Marshall stopped 34. 

On Saturday night in Georgetown, it was a scoreless battle for 28 minutes before O’Flaherty stuffed a goal past Marshall after having just missed a chance seconds earlier. 

Leamington clung to that one-goal lead until the Raiders lifted Marshall for an extra attacker with two minutes left. 

O’Flaherty and Cam Arquette both narrowly missed empty-net goals before Adrian Bosev tabbed one with four seconds left for a 2-0 win and a 2-0 series lead.