Fishermen lead Warriors 2-1 in CRJHL final

The Capital Region Junior Hockey League championship series between the Selkirk Fishermen and the St. Malo Warriors has been a great one so far.

It probably will get much, much better.

St. Malo scratched out a 3-2 win at the Recreation Complex on Sunday to get back into the series.

Selkirk leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 heading into this Friday’s game (8 p.m.) in St. Malo.

“It’s shaping up to be a dandy, that’s for sure,” said Fishermen head coach Chris Poponick. “Close games every game. One mistake on either side and then the other team capitalizes and takes advantage of it. Sometimes it’s tough to battle back. (Sunday) was kind of surprising to me. I thought our guys would be a little bit more fired up after Friday’s win. We came out flat and St. Malo never quit.”

In Game 3, St. Malo’s Brady Gregoire scored the game winner on the power play with 7:23 left on the clock in the third period.

Selkirk’s Kasen Andrushko had tied the score at 2-2 just over four minutes earlier.

The Warriors’ Kaden Rioux and the Fishermen’s Peyton Moneyas traded first-period goals and then Ashton Dubois tallied to stake St. Malo to a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.

Selkirk started the series with a 2-1 home win over St. Malo on March 21.

Xander De La Ronde scored the game winner with 5:52 remaining in the third period.

Selkirk’s Seth De La Ronde opened the game’s scoring in the first period and then St. Malo’s Jeremie Collette answered with a second-period goal.

Owen Derewianchuk made 22 saves for the victory.

Last Friday, the Fishermen pulled out an ultra-exciting 4-3 triple overtime win in St. Malo.

“It was a really good win, that’s why I was surprised with (Sunday’s) result because I thought we could have fed off of that. Friday night's win was 16 playoff wins in a row for our organization,” Poponick said. “It was a pretty good run, now it’s time to reset, recalibrate.”

Raymond Hefferman was the hero in OT, scoring the game winner.

Matt Wagner and Xander De La Ronde gave Selkirk a 2-0 lead before St. Malo’s Ethan Doell tallied with just 23 seconds left in the opening period.

Hefferman and the Warriors’ Teagan Fillion traded second-period goals before Fillion tied the score at 3-3 early in the third.

Hefferman finished the game with two power-play goals.

Brendon Hocaluk stopped 38 St. Malo shots for the win. The Fishermen outshot the Warriors 62-42 in the game.

Game 5 of the series will be played Saturday (7:30 p.m.) in Selkirk.

If necessary, Game 6 is set for April 7 at 7:30 p.m.

A series-deciding Game 7 would be played April 8 (7:30 p.m.) in Selkirk.