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Sarnia, ON –
The Sarnia Legionnaires continue their play of
excellent hockey as they push their win streak to
seven after a 5-3 victory over the London Nationals.
And though it looked as if Sarnia would fall back
into their old habits, they kept their composure,
scoring three unanswered goals to end the game.
"We played
really really well at times and we were just a
little bit sloppy at times early in the game," said
head coach Dan Rose. "We came out strong and had a
lot of scoring chances. We sort of let up a little
bit, I thought we stood around for about 10 minutes
in the first period. But our depth showed tonight,
and we just kept rolling"
Standing
around cost the Legionnaires the first goal of the
game when Ryan Davidson picked up a loose puck in
the skates of a defencemen who couldn't clear it
away on the penalty kill, and after Kyle Washer
missed with the poke check, it ended up in the back
of the net.
But Sarnia
would turn it around and with all lines chipping in,
the Legionnaires outshot the Nationals by a
staggering 63-23 margin including 27 in the second
period alone, and got goals from five different
players.
Evan Dixon
got his seventh of the season to tie the game at
1-1, capitalizing on a delayed penalty and receiving
a pass from Anthony Donati in the slot for a wrist
shot past Taylor Edwards to even the game after the
first period.
In the
second, London would retake the lead as Colin Mooney
was left alone in front of Washer, and easily tipped
in a shot to put the Nationals back in front 2-1.
But 37 seconds later Shawn Waldie would send a laser
wrist shot to the top corner of the net from the top
of the circle, tying the game back at 2-2. London
could score just as fast, as Davidson would puck up
his second powerplay goal of the game 43 seconds
later, to retake the lead 3-2.
It would
look as if Sarnia would head to the powerplay, but a
costly penalty would make it 4 on 4. Fortunately for
the Legionnaires it didn't come back to haunt them,
as Derek D'Andrea would redirect a Brent Sauve point
shot to tie the game back at 3-3 after two periods
of play.
Heading
into the third, the action was fast paced and at
moments it seemed like the Legionnaires may fall
back into their undisciplined ways. But Sauve would
put them on the right path, teeing up a slap shot
from just inside the circle that would be Edwards
high again, giving the Legionnaires their first lead
of the game.
Despite
many scoring chances, the Legionnaires could not
increase their lead. In the final minute London
would pull their goal, and off a steal by Jason
Teschke, he would put it into the open net, sealing
the victory for Sarnia.
"That's
probably the most scoring chances I've seen in one
game in a long time," said Rose. "We had a lot of
shots, but we had a lot of scoring chances. There
was probably 20 good scoring chances."
But as per
usual with Rose, he still believes there is a lot of
room for improvement, and with Sarnia's next game
again Leamington on Saturday, it makes for a strong
test for Sarnia against one of the top teams in the
division. Rose says the Legionnaires are no where
near where they want them to be, but remains
positive that they are heading in the right
direction. Rose will continue to look for solid
effort up and down his line up, without having the
lapses in play that has cost them goals against in
the past.
And more
importantly Rose wants his team to continue to
compete each and every night, and not let this
current streak go to their head.
"We are
probably feeling that we know we have a good team,
but they have got to understand that we still have
to work hard because the other teams don't care.
They want to win just as bad as we do," said Rose.
"The idea is with the depth that we have, if we roll
four lines, everyone has to go hard every shift.
Then we are taking advantage of our strengths."
Sarnia's
next three games are against the three teams ahead
of them in the standings, as they welcome Leamington
to the Sarnia Arena on Saturday, and St. Thomas next
Thursday, but will first head to LaSalle on
Wednesday.
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