The Sarnia Legionnaires blew a 3-0 lead Thursday and ended up losing 5-4 to the onrushing Strathroy Rockets.
 

By Dan McCaffery
special to

Sarnia went ahead early Thursday, with captain Tyler Cicchini scoring with a shot from the face-off circle at the 10:07 mark. Assists went to Chase Clark and Joel Steeves.

Rookie Josh Teschke made it 2-0 less than five minutes later. Streaking in on a two-on-one break, he fired home a shot from 10 feet out. Cody Stout and Jeff Paulley drew assists.
 

Early in the second period Jesse Drydak cut in on goal and backhanded the puck behind netminder Blair Bennett to give the home team a 3-0 lead. Steve Farlow and Josh Cornelissen got helpers on the goal.

But Strathroy cut the lead to 3-2 before the period ended and tied it up early in the third frame.
 

With less than 10 minutes to go, Steeves poked a loose puck into a wide open net on the powerplay to give Sarnia a 4-3 lead. Owen Rogers and Drydak assisted.

The roof caved in with under three minutes left, with Strathroy scoring twice, including the winner by Walter Easter.

Perry thought the Legionnaires took too many penalties in the second period, mainly because they were caught out of position.

"We gave up way too many chances," he said. "We took penalties because players were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were forced to take them."

Noting that the team was ahead with a little over six minutes left, he added, "We've got to find ways to win those kind of games."

 

Kyle Washer took the loss in net but was named second star on the basis of the fact that he made 51 saves. Bennett faced 30 shots from the Legionnaires.

• Drydak was the third star, while first star honours went to Walter Easter, who scored a hat trick for the Rockets.

• The defeat dropped Sarnia's record in the Western Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League to 3-3-3. The Rockets improved to 5-1-0.

• The Legionnaires are in Forest tonight, (Fri Oct 2)  where they will face the Lambton Shores Predators at 8:00 pm.