Flyers rally in final minutes, then beat London in OT

By C. Scott Holland

With 974 fans looking on, the Leamington Flyers took everyone on a roller coaster ride that certainly had its ups and downs last Thursday night. But by the end of the ride, the Flyers had emerged with a 3-2 overtime win and sat alone in first place.

“It was a great character win,” said head coach Dale Mitchell. “We have not been in the position often this year playing from behind. We had a great first period and then came out flat in the second. We knew if we came with that same effort we had in the first that we would give ourselves a good opportunity to win the game.”

“Many guys stepped up with the Macphersons and Reid out (playing in the St. Andrew’s College tournament in Aurora),” he added. “It showed we can handle adversity.”

The visiting London Nationals and Flyers battled for nearly 20 minutes of scoreless hockey before the Flyers grabbed a slim 1-0 lead. During that first frame, the Flyers defense and goaltending were superb, permitting only five Nats’ shots on starter Bryce Walcarius. Joe Ranger turned aside 14 in the Nats’ net.

Cody Brekke opened the scoring for the Flyers when Nick Mahy set up Billy Van Sumeren for a shot on net and Brekke was parked near the left post, whisking the rebound past Ranger at 17:28.

In the second it was a completely different story as the Flyers’ defense allowed the Nats 17 shots and two powerplay goals to take a 2-1 lead.

The Nats knotted the game 20 seconds after Griffin Grundner was sideline for interference.

The play was very similar to the Flyers’ opening goal.

At 17:29 London’s Carter Duarte and Leamington’s Nolan McKibbin tangled just outside the penalty box. Duarte received a two-minute check-from-behind and game misconduct while McKibbin was off for four minutes due to head contact. The result was the Nats having a two-minute powerplay on which they tabbed the go-ahead goal.

With the score 2-1 heading into the third, neither team generated many scoring opportunities during the third period’s first half.

Two London penalties gave the Flyers a golden chance to take the lead midway through the period. A tripping call was handed to London’s Jackson Bunker, and on the heels of that, Lucas Chard was given a five-minute major match penalty for kicking.

On the resulting fiveon-three, the Flyers set up well but couldn’t get the equalizer, but as the major penalty was dying down, Gabe Piccolo and Thomas

Grossi hooked passes to Brekke who rifled a shot behind Ranger from the left lane, tying the contest late.

In the overtime, it didn’t take long to decide a winner as Anthony Ciaramitaro collected a feed in the neutral zone and skated into the Nats’ end unmolested and hit the

top of the slot where he unleashed a hard wrist shot that bounced off Ranger. The puck came right back onto his stick and Ciaramitaro immediately gunned it into the top corner for the game winner, which was met with a loud cheer from the crowd.

Walcarius halted 29 London shots while Ranger stopped 36.

Next game is February 2 vs. Komoka Kings at 7:10 p.m.

A Flyers player is taken down in the London zone as Adrian Bosev (#5) focuses on the play. The Flyers won the game 3-2 in stunning fashion as they tied it late in the third and got the winner from Anthony Ciaramitaro early in the overtime. Scott Holland photo