Legionnaires Lost in London
thursday september 19, 2013
By Dan McCaffery
The Sarnia Legionnaires saw their record fall to .500 Wednesday after dropping a 3-1 road decision to the London Nationals.
With the setback the Legion crew now sports a 2-2 won-lost record.
They will try to rebound tonight (Thursday, Sept. 19) when they host the undefeated LaSalle Vipers. Game time at the Brock Street rink is set for 7:10 p.m.
The Vipers, who edged St. Thomas 3-2 Wednesday, have a perfect 5-0 record.
Legionnaire head coach Dan Rose said his club lost to the Nats despite a strong start. "I thought we had a great first period, we outchanced them and outshot them but ended up down 1-0" he said.
Cody Slaght had a glorious chance to put Sarnia ahead early but he was crosschecked to the ice before he could pop in a puck from close range.
In the second period, Rose said, "There was no flow at all because of all the penalties."
Rose conceded the Nationals outworked his club over the final 40 minutes, at least partly because the Legionnaires wore themselves out killing too many penalties.
Sarnia surrendered one powerplay goal and spent a lot of energy killing off seven other shorthanded situations.
When they had the extra man, the Legionnaires were toothless tigers, going 0-for-8.
But Rose vowed the powerplay will get better. "It's early in the season. They'll struggle for a little bit. Some teams have their same powerplay units from last year while we're just putting ours together."
Rose had praise for Curtis Crombeen, who played his first game for the Legion after spending four years in the OHL with Plymouth and Owen Sound. "He was a presence out there," the coach said.
Ryan Vendramin got Sarnia's only goal in the second frame when he knocked in a rebound after Josh Kestner drove hard to the London net, only to be foiled by the goalkeeper. It was the big centre's third goal of the young season.
The Legionnaires had a great chance in the third when they broke in on a 3-on-1 break while playing shorthanded. Unfortunately, they failed to score.
Anthony Kotsovos, Keaton Ratcliffe and Matt Fuller scored for the winners.
Sarnia goalie Sean Parker took the loss, despite making 33 saves, including several impressive stops. The Legionnaires had 21 shots on goal.
 
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