Clarenville grabs home-ice advantage in CWSHL final

There wasn’t much to choose between the Clarenville Caribous and Gander Flyers during the Central West Senior Hockey League regular season, and it appears it will be that way during the league final.

The Flyers and Caribous split the opening two games of the best-of-seven series over the weekend at the Steele Community Centre in Gander, with Kevin Reid scoring five goals as the Caribous bounced back for an 8-2 win Sunday after losing 7-5 in Game 1 Saturday night.

The results mean the defending champion Caribous, who finished a point behind the Flyers in the regular season, have wrested away home-ice advantage in the series, which continues with two games next weekend (March 17 and 18) at the Eastlink Events Centre in Clarenville.

On Sunday, Justin Pender, Chad Earle and Dustin Russell also scored for the Caribous, with Mitchell Oake and Patrick O’Keefe replying for the Flyers.

In Saturday’s series opener, league scoring leader and MVP Jordan Escott scored twice for Gander, with Brandon Hynes also delivering a pair of tallies.

O’Keefe, Josh Fitzgerald and Paul Hutchings had the other Flyer goals.

Ryan Desrosiers, with two, Jordan Kennedy, Earle and Russell provided the markers for Clarenville. Russell’s tally, which came with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game and goalie Tyler Whiffen on the bench for an extra attacker, made the score 6-5. But with the Caribous still operating with an empty net, Hutchings scored to seal the deal for the home side.

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