The Sarnia Legionnaires suffered their fifth straight loss Thursday.
With a crowd of 1,170 looking on at the Brock Street Barn, Coach Jeff Perry's Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League team was drubbed 7-3 by the LaSalle Vipers.
The loss leaves Sarnia in sixth place in the nine-team western conference, three points back of fifth ranked LaSalle and only one ahead of seventh place St. Thomas.
The Legionnaires, who now have a 9-11-5 record, are in St. Thomas Sunday to face the Stars.
Last night's game was close for more than 40 minutes. In fact, the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the first period and Sarnia had a 2-1 lead early in the second.
Defenceman Anthony Donati gave the home team the lead with two goals. On the first, he came off the point on the powerplay, made a nifty move to get around a Viper forward and drilled the puck into the net. On the second, he unleashed a drive from the point that beat goalkeeper Connor Lyons cleanly.
Donati now has seven goals and three assists since he returned to the Legionnaires six games ago.
For much of the rest of the game, although they appeared to be working hard, the home team could not finish off plays around the Vipers net.
LaSalle stormed ahead 4-2 by the end of the second stanza and was up 7-2 in the third when Tanner Garrick closed out the scoring.
Garrick finished off a two-on-one break by scooping up a loose puck at the side of the cage and tapping it into a wide open net.
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Jesse Raymond and Kyle Washer split the goaltending duties for Sarnia, with Raymond stopping 13 of 16 shots before he was pulled early in the second period. Washer went the rest of the way, giving up four goals on 23 shots.
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Tanner Tomlinson and Joel Steeves each had two assists for the Legionnaires, while single helpers went to Shawn Waldie and captain Tyler Cicchini.
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The Legionnaires are home next Thursday to the Chatham Maroons. Game time at the Sarnia Arena is 7:30 p.m.
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Sarnia was two-for-nine on the powerplay but failed to score with LaSalle shorthanded for five minutes late in the second period. The Vipers were one-for-three with the extra man.
