10-Mar-2006 · 9:20pm

The Mountainview Homes Falcons took a (3-1) first round series lead Wednesday night with a 4-3 win in Fort Erie, creating a 'do or die' situation for the Meteors. A win tonight for the Meteors sends the series back to Fort Erie Saturday night, or a win tonight for the Falcons ends the quarterfinal series and sends St. Catharines to the second round to face the Thorold Blackhawks.

The Falcons kicked off the evening Friday by scoring first early in the 1st period. Joel Shaw recorded his 2nd goal of the postseason at the 4:39 mark when he beat Fort Erie's goaltender Marcus Menard up top. Mike Dahms and Falcons netminder Sean Hall assisted on the goal.

The scoreboard remained quiet after Shaw's goal, as neither team put up any points for the remainder of the period. St. Catharines skated into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

GOALS BY PERIOD
TEAM	1ST	2ND	3RD	TOTAL
	0	1	0	1
	1	2	2	5

The second period started out in favour for the Meteors, when Cody Keating beat Sean Hall to tie the game one minute and 13 seconds into the period. Todd Krupa received the lone assist on the goal.

The Falcons fought off the Meteors attack, and added their second goal of the night just past the half way point of the second period. Dan Marwick notched his first goal of the postseason at 10:35 to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead. Falcons captain Kelsey Blinkhorn and defenseman Kevin Floris added assists on the play.

Exactly four minutes later, Falcons forward Mike Chmielewski added his fourth goal of the playoffs at the 14:35 minute mark to give the Mountainview Homes Falcons a 3-1 lead. Nick Petriello and Jamie Heywood each received an assist on the even-strength goal.

The Falcons made it 4-1 in the third period on a goal from Mike Dahms at 9:37 with assists awarded to Dan Marwick and Chris Stevenson. Falcons forward Nick Petriello made it 5-1 less than 2 minutes later when he netted his 5th goal of the postseason at 11:21. Chmielewski and Jeff Amadio recorded assists on the Falcons' 5th goal of the game.

The Falcons fifth goal shut down any chance of a comeback by the Meteors. The period ended with St. Catharines owning a 5-1 lead and sending the Meteors back to Fort Erie with their fourth loss of the series and an end to their season. St. Catharines advances to the second round of the playoffs, and meets the Thorold Blackhawks starting next week.

Sean Hall turned away 26 of 27 shots Friday night, while Marcus Menard allowed 5 goals on 34 shots.

The first game of the semifinal series against Thorold kicks off on Friday, March 17th, inside the Jack Gatecliff Arena in St. Catharines. Game time is 7:30pm.

Come early to get a good seat, but you'll only need the edge!

#	DATE	RECENT FALCONS MATCH-UPS	SCORE
P1	03-Mar-2006	Game 1 - FORT ERIE @ ST CATHARINES	6 - 1 W
P2	04-Mar-2006	Game 2 - ST CATHARINES @ FORT ERIE	4 - 3 W
P3	07-Mar-2006	Game 3 - FORT ERIE @ ST CATHARINES	5 - 2 L
P4	08-Mar-2006	Game 4 - ST CATHARINES @ FORT ERIE	4 - 3 W
P5	10-Mar-2006	Game 5 - FORT ERIE @ ST CATHARINES	5 - 1 W