The Sarnia Legionnaires ended their four game losing streak with a 7 - 3  win over the Strathroy Rockets on Thursday night at the Sarnia Arena before a crowd of 1,106 fans.

"We did a lot of things well tonight, there was a good effort from start to finish." said Legionnaires Head Coach Dan Rose  "They are one of the hardest working teams in the league and one of the best coached team so you got to say teams with will, will win games and that team wins games. We have a lot of skill and when you combine skill and will you get results like that and we had the will tonight.

Chad Beauchamp who returned to the line up shot in the first goal  for Sarnia in the first period at 11:34 assisted by Davis Boyer and Matt Cimetta.

Jason Teschke found himself open in front of the net and took a pass from Davis Boyer and took the easy shot for Sarnia second goal at 18:27 to take a 2 - 0 lead at the end of the first period. 

Just :51 seconds into the second period Josh Kestner took a shot from the blue line that ended in the net.  Jeff King and Nathan Mater were credited with assists.  At 14:20 Nick Boyer put Strathroy on the scoreboard and the second period would end with Sarnia leading 3 - 1.

In the third period a series of goals began at 4:06 when Davis Boyer scored unassisted. Strathroy answered back just over a minute later at 5:08 with Chase Thornton scoring.  At 6:42 Bobby King took pass from Matt Cimetta to give Sarnia 5 - 2 lead. 

"Matt Cimetta was a warrior, he played forward for us tonight and contributed." said Rose "He went back on D when we went short he was all over the ice and created a lot of chances, then he came back and played D as well"

The two teams then shared a pair of power play goals with Sarnia scoring first at 7:15 after Steve Farlow took a slap shot from the blue line.  Jeff Bauer and Davis Boyer earned the assists. Strathroy's power play goal came at 13:19 with Ryan Field scoring.  Less than a minute later Josh Kestner scored his second and the final goal of the night after receiving a pass from Jeff King from the corner.  Nathan Mater was also credited with an assist on the goal.

"It was a confidence builder you can build off that there's a lot of good things that happened out there tonight." said Rose "We blocked a lot of shots we had a lot of scoring chances and the kids really responded to the practices and meetings we had this week.  I think they themselves took it on and they are tired of loosing and it showed tonight."

Sarnia outshot Strathroy 50 - 36.  Sean Parker earned the win for the Legionnaires with 33  and Gordie Weiss took the loss with a total of 43 saves.

Strathroy went 1 for 6 in power play opportunities, Sarnia went 1 for 5.

Sarnia is on the road Saturday December 15 to Lambton Shores.  This is the fourth contest between the two teams.  Lambton Shores has taken 3 wins in close games with two of those games being decided in overtime.  Game time at the Lambton Shores Recreation Centre is set for 7:30 pm.

 

 

 

 

• Brent Sauve remains on the injury list.  Zack Tuchklaper and Henry Yawit have returned home but they remain on the roster.

• Davis Boyer who scored 1 and assisted on 3 was selected 1st star, Kosh Kestner scored 2 goals earned 2nd star and Nathan Mater was selected 3rd star with 2 assist. 

• Jeff King and Matt Cimetta also had 2 point night with 2 assists each.

• Legionnaires honoured Bill Weir prior to the game.  Weir was the Junior B convener for 26 years.  read more

• A special Visitor (HO HO HO) will be arriving on Thursday Dec 20 game.