Jake O'Donnell scored his
first of the season and game
winning goal with 38 seconds
remaining to give the Sarnia
Legionnaires the 6 - 5 win
against the Chatham Maroons
in Jr. B hockey league
action Thursday night at the
Sarnia Arena.
"It was great to get the
first one out of the way."
O'Donnell said after the
game. "The bounces hadn’t
been going my way in the
offensive zone but we got
the win that’s the main
part."
In the first period the
Legionnaires scored 3 and
Chatham scored 2 both power
play goals.
"The first period was
probably as good a period we
played all year," Head Coach
Dan Rose said "Other than
their power play goals, one
was just a screen shot and
the other one was just a
good play."
In the second the
Legionnaires scored 2 goals
to take a 5 - 2 lead but the
Maroons battled back and
scored 3 goals to even the
score and the two teams
started the third tied at 5
- 5.
"Second period they out
worked us," Rose said "We
out worked them in the first
but the boys we were out of
steam or out of gas in the
third but the guys sucked it
up we hung in there."
"I would have been content
going into overtime and
getting a point after
playing a good hockey team,
but good hockey teams work
hard and you get breaks and
we got a break when Jake
O’Donnell got his first goal
of the year when he let it
go and it went off the D’s
stick right over the goalie
shoulder and in. That’s a
character builder for our
hockey team."
Ryan Vendramin led the
Legionnaires in scoring with
2 goals and added an assist
for a 3 point night.
"Ryan in the last three
weeks has played the best
hockey since he got here,"
Rose said "He’s
competing hard, he gets
pucks in the net he can fire
a puck he’s just a gifted
scorer and he gets goals but
he also gets good assists."
Cody Trowell, Riley
Babkirk and Davis Boyer also
contributed in scoring.
Michael Levesque scored 2
for Chatham with singles by
Steven Szekesy, Brayden
Hopkins and Steven
Beenackers.
Penalties were handed out
only in the first period.
A fight broke out between PJ
Vandervaart and John Bowen,
both received major
penalties and were escorted
off with game misconducts.
"That just happened," Rose
said "There’s two big tough
boys out there I think they
just decided they were going
to pound each other and I
guess the crowd got their
monies worth on that one."
After the fight Chatham
received one penalty giving
Sarnia one power play
opportunity that they didn't
score on and Sarnia was
handed three penalties
giving Chatham three power
play opportunities scoring
two.
Sarnia outshot Chatham 29 -
27. Hunter Johnson
went the distance with some
stellar saves earned his
13th win of the season.
Chatham's net was shared by
Bo Bessette and Jake
Patterson.
Sarnia is in second place
with a record of 18-7-0
three points ahead of
Chatham who are now 16-7-1.
The Legionnaires has two
away games, the first in St.
Thomas tonight (Nov 28),
then on Wed Dec 3 they are
in London before returning
home on Thursday Dec 4 when
they face Chatham.
