Legionnaires Lost at Home to St. Thomas

friday september 27, 2013

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In Greater Ontario Jr B hockey the Legionnaires lost their first league game at home against the St. Thomas Stars by a score of 2 - 1. 

 

"That was our worst game of the year." Head Coach Dan Rose said after the game. "Give St. Thomas credit they played a great road game and we had a lot of guys that along just for the ride tonight. This is our barn and they outworked us in our barn".

 

Action went end to end and both sides had many scoring chances that was stopped by luck or great plays by the two goalies.

 

 

"Braden [Palocz] played really well he gave us the chance to win the hockey game. He made two or three unbelievable saves.  He was solid all night long. He was our most consistent player tonight." Rose said

 

St. Thomas took a 1 - 0 lead late in the period at 18:23 by Spencer Hutchinson.  Riley Roberts gave the Legionnaires the tie at 13:06 in the second with PJ Vandervaart earning the assist.

 

"Puck was passed to me right up the middle and I just caught it one handed and put it right through the two defencemen and skated as fast as I could right by them and I got lucky and it went in." said Roberts

 

Just over two minutes later St. Thomas scored to regain the lead.  Josh Slegers scored what turned out to be the game winner for the Stars.

 

In the third action continue to go end to end and in the last minute of play the Legionnaires pulled their goalie and were unable to score that gave the Stars the win.

 

 

"We have to compete, we did not compete tonight for pucks we did not reach for pucks we had our stick lifted all night long." Rose said and added "If you want to win in this league you got to compete. Having the will will beat skill and they had will tonight.  We had skill but we sure didn't have the will."

 

St. Thomas outshot the Legionnaires 36 - 30.  Riley Brown made 29 saves in the win and despite the loss Palocz was outstanding with 34 saves.

 

Both sides had just one power play opportunity and neither side scored.

 

The Legionnaires are now 3 - 3 for the season and look for their first win on the road this Sunday September 29 in Chatham at 7:00 pm. Their next home game is on Thursday October 3 when they host the Strathroy Rockets at 7:10 pm at the Sarnia Arena.

 

• Legionnaires goalie Braden Palocz was selected first star of the night and St. Thomas netminder Riley Brown was second.  Riley Roberts was selected third star.

• Sarnia Midget A/AA goaltender Riley Collins was sitting in for Sean Parker as back up goalie.

• 947 fans were in attendance