|
Sarnia, ON –
The Sarnia Legionnaires may have finally hit their
stride this week, with a 5-2 victory over the
Chatham Maroons, the Legionnaires have won their
last two games and are starting to work together as
a unit.
"That was
a great effort, we really played well tonight," said
head coach Dan Rose. "They're working as 5-man units
when they are out there. The score did not indicate
the level of play tonight. We completely dominated
them."
Sarnia
outplayed the Maroons in the first period, resulting
in two goals that came off of the continue forecheck
the Legionnaires put on. Andrew Sokol got his second
of the year off rebound blocked shot, and beat a
sprawling Conner MacKinnon to put Sarnia up 1-0.
Sarnia
would go on the powerplay in the middle of the
period, where Jesse Drydak had two chances in the
slot but just couldn't find the handle on either
shot. But even when turned around on their own
penalty kill, the Legionnaires lead by Evan Dixon
had two chances at scoring.
Soon after
the penalty kill expired, Anthony Donati won a puck
battle behind the net, sent the puck out from where
Derek D'Andrea scored his second of the season to
put Sarnia up 2-0 after the first.
In the
second the Legionnaires made a costly mistake that
resulted in a Chatham goal, as a clear up the ice
was knocked down by Ian Faubert who raced in on Kyle
Washer with a 3 on 1, dishing off to Thomas Eady who
scored to cut the lead in half.
But Dixon,
who has been a stand out player for Sarnia would
restore the two goal lead with a turnover of his own
in the Chatham corner, walking across the top of the
goal crease from the corner and sliding a backhand
passed MacKinnon for the 3-2 lead after the second.
Sarnia
held Chatham to just three shots in the period.
In the
third, the Legionnaires took four penalties in the
first half of the period. Chatham would jump on a 5
on 3 powerplay when Michael Verboom picked up a
rebound from a point shot and made it a 3-2 game.
But
Sarnia, who outshot Chatham 19-15 in the period
would continue their dominating play. Justice Dundas
would score his first goal as a Legionnaire after
getting sent down from the Sarnia Sting on a cross
pass from Jesse Drydak, beating MacKinnon with a top
corner wrist shot. for the 4-2 lead.
22 seconds
later Daniel Nikandrov would get a pass from Dixon
out of the corner and beat MacKinnon low for the
fifth and final goal of the night, as Sarnia takes
home their second victory on home ice, 5-2.
Rose
thought his team, who has had discipline problems in
the past, played a disciplined game despite the
third period penalties.
"Our guys
were disciplined. We got some penalties but they
were not undisciplined penalties," said Rose. "We
were disciplined last night and we were tonight."
Sarnia
killed of six of the seven penalties handed out to
them, while were 0 for 4 on the powerplay.
With a
full line up with two new additions in Nathan Mater
and Justice Dundas, the Legionnaires received
contributions from everyone throughout the line up.
Rose went with three different powerplay units and
made minor changes to his line up to help generate
scoring, showcasing not only the skill of the
Legionnaires, but also the tremendous depth the team
has.
"It was
good hard hockey, and I think our depth showed as
the game went on," said Rose. "We have four lines
that can play. We got skill, we are big, we are
going to be a tough team to play if they show up and
play like this."
With two
wins in a row, the Legionnaires seemingly have found
the way to win. But Rose has been adamant that
confidence has never been an issue in the
Legionnaires dressing room, and that from the get
go, it was all a process to get a winning team on
the ice.
"We always
have confidence in this hockey team, we just
struggled out of the gate" said Rose. "We knew we
would get it going. We didn't want to make an
excuses, we just weren't playing well, that's all."
Kyle
Washer also picked up his third win of the season,
making 24 saves and coming up big when he had to.
Sarnia is
now 3-4-0 to start the year. Sarnia is on the road
next week with a Wednesday game in LaSalle and a
Saturday game in Welland. Sarnia's next home game is
Thursday, October 13th against Strathroy.
Follow Sarniasports on twitter
@sarniasports.
Get up to the minute news, and live scores
as they happen from local events. |
