Flyers win two, lose one

By C. Scott Holland

LEAMINGTON — After playing three games in the span of four days, the Flyers grabbed four points and maintained a second-place tie with Chatham, with five games in hand on firstplace London.

On Thursday, the Flyers returned to action after 12 days off and dropped a lacklustre 6-3 decision to the visiting Komoka Kings.

The Flyers fell behind early and never recovered. They attempted a comeback in the third, only to be thwarted by Kings’ goalie Omar Hage.

Flyers starter Ryan Polidori stopped 23 of 28 shots, while Hage was spectacular, halting 49 Flyers attempts including 23 in the third.

After spotting the Kings a 2-0 lead, Kale Couvillon scored for the Flyers with about three minutes left in the first.

In the second, the Kings upped their lead to 3-1 before the Flyers Connor McCracken cut the score to 4-2.

In the third period, the Flyers played their best hockey of the game and closed the margin to 4-3 when Colton O’Brien chipped in a powerplay tally at 3:19.

That was as close as Leamington would get as Hage shut the door from there on in.

The Kings scored two more, including an empty-netter to finish it off.

The Leamington Flyers swarm the net of the Komoka Kings here last Thursday. The Kings held on to upset the Flyers 6-3.

Scott Holland photo

Friday night in St. Thomas, the Flyers hung on to edge the Stars 4-3 after opening up a 4-2 lead.

The teams had a good battle for 50 minutes before the Flyers surged ahead and stayed there.

Scoring for Leamington were Koen Taves, who slotted his first two markers of the campaign, while Blake McNally and Darby Lemieux fired one each. Lemieux’s tally proved to be the game-winner at 11:55 of the third. Polidori started for the second straight night and stopped 29 of 32 shots.

In their final Sunday afternoon game of regular season, the Flyers won 3-1 over the Sarnia Legionnaires. Leamington rolled out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame as Wyatt O’Neil deflected Seth Martineau’s screen shot 75 seconds after the opening faceoff.

Minutes later, Jack Cotter collected his own rebound and deposited it into the open side. Sarnia tabbed their only goal eight minutes into the third and the contest stayed 2-1 until the final minutes when Connor MacPherson scored an empty-netter.

Boe Piroski, who had been up briefly with the OHL’s Niagara Ice Dogs, made 25 saves to get the win.

Schedule: March 3 vs St. Marys Lincolns, 7:10 pm.