Flyers de-crown Kings

By Tate Harris

The Leamington Flyers have moved into second place in the Western Conference of the GOJHL, with a win against the Komoka Kings Thursday night.

Leamington scored five goals against Komoka, while keeping the Kings at three goals of their own, resulting in a score of 5- 3. The Flyers struggled in the first period, but ultimately won. Komoka’s defensive structure would consistently restrict the Flyers from creating offence off their breakout.

“We were making bad passes, we weren’t very good on the puck at all,” said Tony Piroski, head coach for the Flyers.

The Komoka Kings took advantage of the Flyers’ turnovers and were up 2-1 going into the first intermission. Piroski said they needed to give more of an effort if they were going to get through their difficulties.

“We needed to get better for sure,” said Piroski. “It sure wasn’t our best period. Whenever you are struggling a little bit with the puck, you can make up for it with a little bit of extra effort, a little bit of hard work. I thought we did more of that as the game went on.”

Leamington gained momentum after a strong shift by the forward line of Blake Bain, Dylan Weston and Dalton Langlois. Piroski said he recently put this line together to add a “spark” to the team.

Maddux Rychel tied the game shortly after the shift from Bain’s line. Rychel’s goal was also his eighth point in his last nine games.

“Yeah it was good, Robo (Griffen Robinson) made a good play down low and passed it. Popey (Jos Pope- Ferguson) just found me and I was lucky to squeak it in pass his blocker,” said Rychel.

Jaydon Fetter, Flyers defenseman, was able to break the tie scoring his sixth goal of the season and the Flyers headed into the third with a 3-2 lead.

At eight minutes and 29 seconds in the third, Fetter took a slashing penalty. The Flyers have struggled on their penalty kill having the worst percentage in the league when on the P.K. at home. Leamington killed the penalty making them two for two on the P.K. during the night.

Rory DiNiro scored the fourth goal for the Flyers, with Cody Schneider scoring their fifth and final goal of the night. A late push from Komoka had them scoring with one minute and 26 seconds left in the game but fell short on time to make a comeback.

Leamington moves past Lasalle in the standings with them both at 52 points but Leamington having played less games. The Flyers head to St. Thomas Jan. 26 to play their Talbot road rival.

“It’s a big game for us. It’s a good test for us on a back-to-back. We take the bus up there and should be ready to go,” said Rychel.