Pee Wee Flyers season comes down to one game

Craig Bakay | Mar 27, 2019

Here’s the situation: the Pee Wee Frontenac Flyers rep team goes into the Ilderton Jets’ building this Saturday at 6pm with their Ontario Minor Hockey Association final tied at two games (four points) each.

The winner of this tilt takes the title. (In the unlikely event that the game ends in a tie, the series would return to Frontenac Community Arena on Sunday, also at 6pm)

“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” said Flyers coach Al Pixley. “We beat them twice in our building and then they came out in their building and did the same back to us.

“It’s a one-game-takes-all now.”

Pixley wasn’t making any excuses but he did note that the travel distance may have been a factor. Ilderton is northwest of London, ON.

“There was the travel and the late games,” he said. “It was the same for them coming here.”

But he still has faith that the Flyers have it in them to go into Ilderton and come back with the provincial Pee Wee CC championship.

“We haven’t had our backs to the wall all playoffs,” he said. “But we have had our backs to the wall during the season and they came through that.”

Still, getting to the provincial final is no small feat in itself.

“Win or lose, we’ll shake their hands,” he said. “If they beat us three straight, then they deserve to win.

“And if we win, well, so would we deserve it.”

The Atom Flyers also made the final but fell to the Ilderton Jets in three games.

“It was a good run, just not the ending we’d hoped for,” said Atom coach Jamie Craig. “But I tried to explain to the team that you have to learn to lose as well.

“Still, we did go to the all-Ontario finals.”

He said that his team was a little younger this year and it was a “good learning experience.”

Craig will be moving up to the Pee Wee team next season. Pixley will still be there as well and they’ll leave it til next season to decide who will be head coach.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Craig said. “We should be strong.

“Maybe Al and I will do rock, paper, scissors to see who’s head coach.”