Flyers hold on to first place despite loss to London

By C. Scott Holland

It was a wild ride for 24 hours last week as the Leamington Flyers played two of their rival teams who are both within striking distance of gaining first place.

On Wednesday, February 15, the Flyers travelled to London to play the Nationals and at one point after the scoreless first-period led 2-1, but by the end of the contest the Nats had a 5-3 victory.

It was a completely different story on Thursday night at home against the St. Marys Lincolns as the Flyers built a 3-0 first-period lead and then shut down the Lincs the rest of the way for a 4-1 win in front of 824 fans.

Wednesday in London it was a scoreless tie after one period as the Flyers’ Bryce Walcarius and London’s Joe Ranger halted everything that came their way. London struck in the second but the Flyers responded shortly thereafter when Cody Brekke received a gift as Ranger came out of his net to play a loose puck. Ranger passed it right onto Brekke’s stick and the Flyers’ forward made no mistake by driving it into the net.

Ryan MacPherson then hustled to beat a Nats’ player to a puck behind the net and circled around behind before putting the puck past Ranger for a 2-1 lead.

That lead did not last long as the Flyers took two penalties and the Nats tabbed two powerplay goals for a 3-2 lead and then extended it to 4-2.

Anthony Ciaramitaro fired the third Flyers’ goal to make it close, but after lifting starter Walcarius for an extra attacker in the final minutes, the Nats added an empty-net goal.

The stage was set for Thursday night’s contest as a one point difference separated the two teams.

Only 90 seconds into the contest, Koen Taves and Trevor LaRue clicked passes with Connor MacPherson who drilled a shot from the left side into the top corner of the net stunning goalie Matteo Lalama and the visiting Lincolns.

Leamington upped that lead midway through the period when Anthony Ciaramitaro spotted Ryan MacPherson the puck as a battle went on between players at the edge of the St. Marys’ crease. MacPherson’s shot eluded everyone. On the play, the Lincolns Graydon Strohack was assessed a minor penalty and on the ensuing powerplay LaRue and Koen Taves hooked passes to Kale Couvillon who ripped the third Flyers’ goal.

The Lincolns would make a game of it in the second period as they spent the vast majority of the stanza, firing pucks at Flyers’ starter Boe Piroski who faced 14 shots in that period and allowed the Lincolns’ only goal.

The Flyers’ insurance marker in the third was a slick powerplay goal at 10:36 when Brekke and Griffin Grundner laid the groundwork for Trevor LaRue.

Schedule: Final home game is Thursday, February 23 versus St. Thomas Stars at 7:10 p.m.

A St. Marys’ defenseman takes on Hayden Reid at the side of the Lincolns’ net while Connor MacPherson (25) and Anthony Ciaramitaro celebrate the goal that MacPherson just scored. The goal was the first of four Flyers’ tallies that enabled Leamington to win the game 4-1 in front of 824 fans. The regular season ends on Feb. 26 and the Flyers have only one home game left. – Photo by C. Scott Holland