The Sarnia Legionnaires are going to have to play a lot better Saturday than they did last night if they hope to beat the Lambton Shores Predators again.

That's the word from Coach Jeff Perry.

Perry made his comments moments after the Legion crew won a surprisingly close contest with the Predators at the Brock Street Barn.

In fact, Lambton Shores outshot Sarnia 50-42 before going down to a 6-3 defeat.

Going into the game, the Preds had a 4-22-0 record and were in last place in the Western Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. In their previous visit to Sarnia they had been shellacked 12-2.
 

But this time it was much closer. In fact, Perry felt the difference in the game was the hot goaltending of Sarnia's Jesse Raymond, who won first star honours with his 47-save effort.

“When you get into 50-42 shot games. . . . you're not going to win too many games down the road with that kind of performance,” he said.

The Legionnaires started strong, with Brent Sauve scoring his second of the year from the slot before the game was five minutes old.

Sauve, who also had an assist (and who rang a shot off the post) was named the game's third star.

Afterward, the big winger said he expects a tough battle against the Predators in Forest Saturday night. “They've definitely stepped up their game,” he said. “It was a tougher challenge than before. And next time we'll be in their barn.”

Jesse Drydak, who was here, there and everywhere, was named the game's second star. And he earned it, scoring two goals for the Legionnaires, both while killing penalties. The outburst gave him a team-leading 18 goals.
 

Drydak was actually a little unlucky, despite his scoring exploits. In fact, he just missed on three glorious chances, two of them while playing shorthanded. It's no exaggeration to say that with just a little luck he could have had four shorthanded goals.

Perry appeared to recognize that, declaring, “We should have played shorthanded the whole game.”

Joel Steeves scored his 11^th of the year when he roared in on a breakaway and deked goalie Sean Parker out of position before firing the puck into the net. His goal, which made it 4-0, came just moments after a Sarnia penalty had expired.

Lambton Shores closed the gap to 4-2 but Andy Sokol gave Sarnia some breathing room when he batted his eighth of the season into a yawning cage from close range.

Josh Teschke added Sarnia's sixth goal when he banked in a shot off the goalie's leg from a difficult angle.

• Tommy Ziolkowski, Owen Rogers, Tanner Ferguson, Tanner Tomlinson, Jeff Paulley, Sokol, Teschke and Sauve had assists for the winners.

• Duncan MacSorley, James Pursell and Kalvin Thornton scored for Lambton Shores, which was down only 4-2 at the end of the second period.

• Attendance was 1,157.

• Legionnaire captain Tyler Cicchini missed the game with a hand injury.

• The two teams go back at it Saturday night in Forest.