Legionnaires can't get past Golden Eagles
dan mccaffery January 7th, 2011

It was close, but the Sarnia Legionnaires couldn't beat the powerful Brantford Golden Eagles last night.

The Eagles, one of the top teams in the Midwest Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, exhibited a fine killer instinct, scoring on most of their good chances, to skate off with a 5-3 win.

The visitors also proved to be effective penalty killers, escaping unscathed from six shorthanded situations.

With the loss, Sarnia remains in sixth place in the league's Western Conference, one point back of the St. Marys Lincolns.

The Legionnaires play in St. Marys tonight.

With 1,341 fans looking on, Josh Teschke scored his second goal in two games to give Sarnia the lead late in the first frame.

But the Eagles tied things up less than a minute later.

In the second stanza, although play was about dead even, Brantford got three of the five goals scored.

Tanner Tomlinson (with his 12^th) and Ilya Arkalov (with his 8^th) did the honours for Sarnia.

“It seemed every chance they (the Eagles) got they capitalized on,” Legionnaires assistant coach Mike Fleming said afterward. “With a different bounce here and there it would have been a totally different outcome.”

Fleming was impressed with the play of Teschke, who was called up from the Jr. 'C' Mooretown Flags, and defenceman Matt Cimetta, who was brought in from minor midget ranks.

The reinforcements were needed because Owen Rogers was sitting out the last game of a three-game suspension and Jeff Paulley was away tending to family matters.

In the third frame, although the Legionnaires pressed hard, missing three glorious scoring opportunities. Jesse Drydak had the best chance, getting in alone, only to be foiled by goalie Kari Rikkoken.

Game notes:

·         Josh Chapman had two assists for the Legionnaires, while other helpers were registered by Brent Sauve, Tyler Annett and Sokol.

·         Kyle Washer, who made 40 saves, took the loss in net. Rikkoken faced 37 shots.

·         After the game, Legionnaires general manager Bob Williamson announced Braden Kavaratzis has left the team to join the Wellington Dukes Tier 11 Jr. 'A' squad.