Sarnia vs St. Marys
September 17, 2009
By Dan
McCaffery
The Sarnia
Legionnaires finally found their scoring
touch Thursday, but it wasn't enough to
get them their first win of the season.
Coach Jeff
Perry's defending Western Jr. 'B'
champions lost a 6-5 shootout to the St.
Marys Lincolns before 1,132 fans at the
Brock Street Barn.
It was
Sarnia's second consecutive shootout
loss and their third straight setback
since the campaign began just over a
week ago. In their first two contests,
they found the back of the net only
once.
Despite the
defeat, they picked up one point by
getting into extra time, giving them two
for the season.
Sarnia was
in almost constant penalty trouble,
surrendering four powerplay goals to the
visitors, who had an extra man on 13
occasions. The Legionnaires had one
powerplay goal on three opportunities.
The home
team started slowly, falling behind 1-0
before rookie Derek Nap woke the club up
with a shot from the faceoff circle that
handcuffed goalie Marc Nother. Just half
a minute later, veteran Owen Rogers
backhanded the puck into a wide open
cage to give Sarnia the lead.
But St.
Marys tied it before the first frame was
over, then grabbed a 4-2 lead heading
into the final stanza. The Legionnaires
refused to roll over and die, paying a
scrappy game the rest of the way.There
were two fights in which Sarnia's Tyler
Cicchini and Jeff Paulley both held
their own.
Jesse Drydak
got the Legionnaires within a goal when
he scored a shorthanded, unassisted
marker on a breakaway early in the third
period. Not long after that, Drydak
struck again, firing home a shot from a
sharp angle while standing in the
faceoff circle.
Tanner
Tomlinson gave the Legionnaires their
second lead of the night with a
seeing-eye goal from a bad angle. But
St. Marys scored on the powerplay with
time running out to send the game into
overtime.
After five
minutes of sudden death failed to settle
matters, the teams went to the shootout,
with Seth Griffith scoring the winner.
-
Seth
Anderson started in net for Sarnia
but was replaced by Kyle Washer
after giving up three goals on 15
shots. Washer was outstanding the
rest of the way, blocking 25 of 27
drives, many of them goal-labeled.
