The Sarnia Beavers came out on top Sunday afternoon after edging out the St. Catharines Saints 15 - 14 in the second game in the home series against played at Clearwater Arena. The Saints won the first game on Saturday 18 - 13.
"It was fun to watch." Coach Nick Trudeau said "When we were moving the ball late they wanted to run and today we stopped it and put our own together and finished the full sixty."
After the first period the Beavers led 6 - 4 and in the second St. Catharines had a 1 point lead with the score at 10 - 9 heading into the third.
Third period action saw St. Catharines take a 14 - 12 lead at 11:07. The Beavers fought back and came within one at 10:26. At 5:36 Colin McDowall scored the equalizer and :27 seconds later Jamie Pillon scored what turned out to be the game winner with 5:07 remaining in the game.
Beavers Goaltender Greg Krstic earned his first win of the season.
"Goaltending was key." Trudeau said "To stay to the end I needed him to be there and he was. We talked about it last night he knew he made mistakes yesterday and he made up for it today in the third period."
In the line up for the first time this season was National Lacrosse League player Jim Purves who earned 6 points (1G,5A). Purves plays for the Toronto Rock who's season ended on Saturday May 3 when they lost to the Buffalo Bandits in the playoffs.
Jimmy Purves Returns to Sarnia earning 6 points in the game. (1G,5A) Purves is shown here scoring.
"Skill talent and speed is what I'm trying to bring here and Jimmy has it all." Trudeau said about Purves "As soon as he got on the floor our mo jo changed and we started to feed off what he was doing."
Trudeau was also pleased with MVP Colin McDowall stating he played up to his status. McDowall also earned 6 points scoring 5 goals and assisting on one.
"I don't think of that too much the MVP thing." said McDowall "I just go out every time and try to do my best and give it my all. I started out a slow tonight but instead of letting it get into my head I just went out every shift and started coming together."
Collin McDowall beats goalie beats Jake Henwark
Top point earners in the game were Colin McDowall (5G,1A), Jim Purves (1G,5A), Kyle Childerhose (2G,2A), Jamie Pillon (2G,1A), Kyle O'Donnell (2G), TJ Mara (2G), Chris Davey (1G,1A), Michael Fleming (2A) and Jeff Sauve and Brad Holbrough each earned a single assist.
The Beavers scored 4 short handed goals and 2 power play goals and three of St. Catharines goals were scored on the power play.
"Big relief to get the win." McDowall said "We haven't had the best season so far but it's definitely good to get a win against the Canadian Champions. All we got to do is keep improving in practice and build a better team chemistry, we have a lot of young guys this year and I'm excited to continue to play again with these guys this year."
With 3 games under their belt the Beavers are 1-2 in the early season and look to even their stats when they travel for their second meeting against Six Nations on May 10th.