Legionnaires Take Series Lead
MARCH 6, 2015
By Dan
McCaffery
The Sarnia Legionnaires are
just one win away from
advancing to the second
round of the Western Jr. 'B'
hockey playoffs.
Coach Dan Rose's squad
defeated the St. Thomas
Stars 4-1 Thursday to take a
3-2 lead in the
best-of-seven quarterfinal
series.
Game Six goes tonight
(Friday, March 6) in the
Elgin County city.
A season-high crowd of 1,598
raucous fans witnessed a
rugged contest that included
two fights, a head butt and
more than 90 minutes in
penalties.
Strangely, there were no
powerplay goals, with Sarnia
going 0-for-3 with the man
advantage and St. Thomas
0-for-4.
One of the Stars powerplays
lasted a full five minutes.
It came after P. J.
Vandervaart was ejected for
head butting.
Rose said it appeared St.
Thomas was trying to engage
some Sarnia players in
altercations that would get
them kicked out of the
contest.
But the physical play was by
no means one sided.
Rose noted Brandon Layman
levelled a St. Thomas player
with a hard check late in
the game.
Rose gave the Stars credit
for a strong work ethic.
“They really do play hard.
They're one of the hardest
working teams that we play.
They plug up the neutral
zone and it's hard to get
anything going.”
Ryan Vendramin opened the
scoring at the 8:15 mark of
the opening frame with an
unassisted tally. Vendramin
appeared to be trying to hit
a teammate with a pass that
somehow ended up in the back
of the St. Thomas net.
The Legionnaires had two
great chances to take a 2-0
lead but both were foiled by
goalie Braden Polasek. On
the first, the big netminder
turned back a shorthanded
breakaway by Ryan Trottier.
Moments later, Polasek beat
Davis Boyer on a penalty
shot attempt.
St. Thomas appeared to gain
some momentum from those
developments and Andrew
Chambers was able to tie the
game with less than three
minutes left in the first
period.
Captain Nathan Mater put
Sarnia ahead for good early
in the middle frame with a
shorthanded, breakaway goal.
Assists went to Hunter
Tyczyski and Jake O'Donnell.
Stay-at-home defenceman
Hayden Allen made it 3-1 at
the 9:10 mark when he jumped
on a rebound and fired a
puck from the sideboards
that went in off the
goalkeeper's pads.
Helpers went to Jay Clarke
and Mater.
Jordan Fogarty rounded out
the scoring in the final
period with a wrist shot
from the bottom of the
faceoff circle. Layman and
Vendramin drew assists.
Game notes:
Andrew Masters got the win,
making 22 saves. Braden
Polasek was tagged with the
loss, despite kicking out 30
pucks.
Davis Boyer was beaten on a
first period penalty shot.
Sarnia's Bobby King was a
healthy scratch but Rose
said he will be back in the
lineup Friday.
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