The Fort Erie Meteors may be in the driver’s seat, but head coach/general manager Nik Passero cautioned the race is far from over.
“We haven’t won anything, not a thing,” Passero said Friday night following a 5-3 victory over the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons at the Seymour-Hannah Sports Complex. “There’s so much to do still. That organization is going to put everything on the line tomorrow to save their season, as would we. So we have to be ready to go.”
The Meteors lead the Greater Ontario Hockey League best-of-seven semifinal playoff series 3-2 and can advance to the Eastern Conference finals against the Cambridge Redhawks with a win at home Saturday night.
Fort Erie defenceman RJ Schmidt, who had a solid game with a goal and assist, said Passero quickly reminded the team not to get overconfident.
“You know what Nick said in the room? He said they’re not going to quit, that organization won’t quit,” Schmidt said. “We know that, and we’ve got to come ready to go. I mean, I’ve never won a series at home in Fort Erie in my four years playing here, so I can’t complain.”
While the Meteors finally managed a win in St. Catharines — they lost both previous games in overtime — Passero said the effort was far from what the team will need to close out the series.
“Didn’t love our effort tonight,” he said. “Thought overall, you know, didn’t play a smart playoff game. Raf (goalie Rafael Tremblay) made some big saves, and we got some timely goals, but we’ve got to be better and smarter, characteristics of our team that haven’t happened all year. I’m hoping that it’ll be rectified in a quick 24 hours, we’ve got to be better and smarter than that because that team will not throw away two games.
“We were just not ourselves. I thought we made a lot of mistakes and mental errors and emotional errors.”
Schmidt agreed.
“Probably the biggest win of the year,” he said. “I know we haven’t been able to get one out here, but I feel like we all know we’ve played better in the other games that we’ve lost here in OT, but today I don’t think we were our best, and we still found a way to win, so that just shows what type of team we are.”
Schmidt scored a key goal late in the second period when he fired home a shot from the point with just .06 seconds remaining on a power play off a face-off with three seconds to play.
“Coaches always tell me to shoot the puck, and they put me out there with three seconds left, so it’s a little play to me,” he said. “I didn’t get all of it, but I got enough of it to go in, so I’m happy I could contribute to the organization.”
After exchanging goals in the first period, each team scored in the second before Schmidt’s goal gave Fort Erie a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Ally Mostafaie tied the game at 3-3 at 11:36 of the third with his second of the game, but the Meteors regained the lead when Alex Masotti scored with four minutes to play before Danny Adamo added an insurance marker at 17:38.
“It matters, finding ways to win,” Passero said. “That’s important, and we dug in there in the last 10 and found a way to score a couple.”
Down the hall, Falcons head coach/president of hockey operations Tyler Bielby thought his charges competed well.
“Liked our game,” he said. “Right from the puck drop, we just seemed to always be chasing games. I thought we had an amazing second period, and it had to end with back-to-back penalties. Takes all the momentum away.”
Bielby expects his team to empty their tanks Saturday in an effort to extend the series to Game 7.
“They had a lot of things to say to their bench after they scored a goal, so my guys heard all of it, and we’ll remind them tomorrow it takes four games,” he said.
Tremblay made 31 saves while Falcons netminder Jake Ceranic kicked out 23 shots.
