Legionnaires Won The Battle Over London Nationals

thursday october 17, 2013, 2013

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It was a feisty affair at the Sarnia Arena on Thursday night as the Sarnia Legionnaires tangled with the London Nationals and came out on top with a 6 - 5 win.

 

Braden Palocz made some nice saves. Head Coach Dan Rose said "We didn't give him much help on the power play and their power play got some pucks on the net."

Both teams scored three goals on nine power play opportunities.

 

The Legionnaires went up 3 - 1 in the first period. Brett Corrigan scored his first Jr B goal to open the scoring at 3:31 with Bobby King and Hayden Allen assisting.  King added the second goal for the Legionnaires at 3:47 unassisted. 

 

"King and Corrigan played one of their best games." Rose said  "They played really well in LaSalle last night and they started the game tonight and they rewarded us with a couple nice goals to get the bench fired up.  I think at that point they sent a message that we all can play this game and play it well.  That was real character on their part to send a message to me as a coach that they want to be on the ice more, I respect that."

 

The first continue with London scoring at 9:09 by Tristen Elie and the final goal of the period by Legionnaire Cody Trowell on the power play with Josh Kestner picking up the assist.

 

 

In a back and forth goal scoring second period London scored just :26 seconds into the period with Jonathan Sims scoring on a power play.  Trowell scored his second power play goal for Sarnia at 2:28.  Sims added his second power play goal for London at 5:56 and at 8:47 the final goal of the period was scored by Josh Kestner to give the Legionnaires the 5 - 3 lead heading into the third.

 

Third period saw London battle back and power play goals continued with London scoring the first at 6:17 by Derek Todosichuk.  Jordan Fogarty answered back at 10:17 and at 12:31 Matt Fuller scored for London to narrow the gap.  London pulled their goalie for the extra man in the final minute but Sarnia held on to take the win.

 

 

London outshot Sarnia 39 - 30. Braden Palocz put on a goaltending show for the Legionnaires making 34 saves. Palocz is in for starting goalie Sean Parker who suffered a neck injury in Wednesday game against LaSalle.  Parker is expected to be out for eight weeks.

 

 "I was nervous but I know the boys play great in front of me and that makes me feel more confident." Palocz said  "It will be a good test for me  and the team too because he (Parker) is one of our best players.  It sucks that he's out but we got to pick it up for him.

 

Liam Herbst took the lost with 24 saves.

 

Both sides tallied up the penalties with London taking 49 minutes on 21 infractions and Sarnia took 47 minutes on 18 infractions.

 

"It was just a little hairy out there.  I thought we played hard and we didn't quit and the objective is to score one more than them and we did."

Rose said.

 

• Sarnia and London are now 7 - 7 with a total of 14 points and share 4th spot in the Greater Ontario Jr B Hockey league Western Conference

• Sarnia is back in action at home on October 24 with Chatham coming to Sarnia.  Game time 7:10 at the Sarnia Arena.

• 1,115 fans were in attendance including London Knights General Manager Mark Hunter

• Cody Trowell earned first star of the night, Josh Kestner second and London's Jonathan Sims earned third.