03-Mar-2006 · 9:15pm

The 2005-06 playoffs kicked off in fine fashion for Fort Erie and St. Catharines Friday night inside the Jack Gatecliff Arena.

St. Catharines opened the scoring 33 seconds into the game when Falcons captain Kelsey Blinkhorn put his first goal of the postseason past Meteors netminder Marcus Menard. Dan Marwick and Chris Stevenson assisted on the Falcons first goal of the playoffs.

Nick Petriello gave St. Catharines a 2-0 lead at 8:42 of the first period when he scored on the power-play. Mike Chmielewski and Mike Dahms recorded assists on the play. The Falcons held onto the lead going into the first intermission.

The Falcons kept the goals coming in the second period, with Mike Chmielewski netting two just three minutes apart. Nick Petriello and Thomas Longland assisted on the first goal, which was a power-play goal, and Petriello and Jordan Nolan assisted on Chmielewski's second goal of the game.

GOALS BY PERIOD
TEAM	1ST	2ND	3RD	TOTAL
	0	0	1	1
	2	2	2	6

Marcus Menard was pulled from the Fort Erie net at the 4:00 minute mark of the second period. Menard stopped 16 of 20 shots over 24 minutes of ice time. Backup goaltender Tyler Geoffroy replaced Menard in goal.

St. Catharines held onto their 4-0 lead skating into the second intermission.

The Meteors broke Sean Hall's chance at a shutout when Nick Chambers put a shot past the Falcons netminder at 4:57 of the third period. Dan Coates and Joe Burns added assists on Fort Erie's first goal of the postseason.

The Falcons added a fifth goal at 15:52 of the third period. Nick Petriello put his second goal of the game past Meteors netminder Tyler Geoffroy to give St. Catharines a 5-1 lead with 4:08 left. Jamie Heywood and Mike Chmielewski notched assists on the goal.

Andrew Kilcar gave St. Catharines a 6-1 lead at the 19:27 minute mark. Jordan Nolan recorded his second assist of the night on the late period goal.

Sean Hall stood on his head in net for St. Catharines, turning away 21 of 22 Fort Erie shots, while Tyler Geoffroy stepped in and stopped 14 of 16 shots for the Meteors. Fort Erie turned away a total of 30 shots.

The next game in the series takes place Saturday night in Fort Erie. Game #2 kicks offs at 7:45pm inside the Fort Erie Leisureplex.

#	DATE	RECENT FALCONS MATCH-UPS	SCORE
P1	03-MAR-2006	GAME 1: FORT ERIE @ ST CATHARINES	6 - 1 W