Although they were being outplayed the Fort St. John Flyers were right in the game against the Clarenville Caribous . . . at least for the first 45 minutes.
Then came one poor decision that changed the game completely in the Caribous favour.
Flyers forward Bryan Lewis was assessed a slashing major and a game misconduct at 4:54 of the third period. Three minutes and 31 seconds later the Caribous had five power play goals to take an 8-2 lead and were well on their way to a 9-3 victory in Allan Cup action at the Arena Tuesday.
“We talked before the game that the one report we had on them was they had a good power play,” said Flyers head coach Darrel Leahy. “Up to that point we were good, but that was deflating for sure, although there was more to it than that.”
Leading 3-2, Dale Sullivan started the onslaught 39 seconds into the major and before the Flyers knew what hit them Chris Hulit, Ryan Delaney, Matt Quinn and Hulit connected with the man advantage.
“That was big, but I thought the first two periods we were still the dominant team, we just didn’t score enough,” said Caribous head coach Ivan Hapgood. “The first period we knew they had played yesterday and by using four lines we felt we’d wear them down and the power play certainly helped.”
Overall the Caribous, held an edge in speed, quickness and offensive depth and once they started taking advantage of their chances they pulled away.
“We moved the puck (earlier on the power play), but weren’t taking a lot of shots and we told the boys that’s a good penalty kill for the other team,” said Hapgood. “We had to start shooting and when we started we had success. And it wasn’t a case of their goalie giving up bad goals but we were scoring, tick-tack-toe.”
Flyers starting goaltender Clayton Pool kept the first period tied 1-1 with several spectacular saves. He carried that into the second period, and despite giving up a goal to Andrew Sweetland at 4:10, he was still standing on his head. And in the end it was an outstanding “spread eagle” save that was his downfall. He left the game less than three minutes later and was replaced by Troy Hunt.
“Pool played very well in that first period as we started slow but he gave up only one goal on 15 shots,” said Leahy. “But unfortunately he was injured. He was hit on the knee in warm up and when he spread eagled and tried to jump up right away I think we tweaked a tendon on the inside of his knee. We’ll have to see how he is and go from there.”
After the Flyers tied the game on Gerard Dicaire’s goal at 9:46 of the middle stanza, Delaney made it 3-2 at 10:33.
“Their third goal was a lucky bounce so really it should have been 2-2,” said Leahy. “But then overall we didn’t compete as well as we have in the past and we talked about that afterward . . . talked about what we can do better. Now we can put this one to bed . . . it’s over and done with and put it behind us.”
Hapgood also realizes it’s just one game.
“We don’t like to run the score up on anyone, but they won yesterday and we still have a game against Stony Plain (today at 4 p.m.) and with a loss it could come down to goals for and against. So this score is big for us. But it’s one game . . . we have to put it behind us.”
Despite the fact he faced just 19 shots, Caribous netminder Jason Churchill was solid, in fact his save off Ryan Carter on a breakaway with the Flyers up 1-0 in the first period, was huge at the time.
“Anything Jason Churchill does doesn’t surprise me,” said Hapgood,. “He’s been doing it for a long time and you come to expect it.”
Carter scored the Flyers first goal with Sullivan tying the score at 17:13 . . . The Caribous had 34 shots on Pool and Hunt . . . The loss put the Flyers into Thursday’s semifinal . . . The Caribous would have to lose by six goals against Stony Plain not to finish first and earn a bye into Friday’s semifinals.