By Dan McCaffery
The St. Thomas Stars
defeated the Sarnia
Legionnaires 4-3 Thursday in
a Jr. 'B' hockey game played
at the Brock Street barn.
The Elgin County team jumped
into a 2-0 lead, thanks to a
first period goal by Carter
McCormick and a second
period tally by James
Newland.
But Sarnia roared back to
take a 3-2 lead early in the
final frame.
Ryan Vendramin started the
comeback in the middle
stanza when he stole a puck
at the blueline and went in
alone on a breakaway. The
shifty forward deked Stars
goalie Brendan Polasek out
of position before scoring
his 14th of the campaign.
Not long after that, Cody
Trowell tied the game,
whipping home a pass from
Kyler Keating.
In the third period, Sarnia
took its only lead of the
contest.
Once again it was Trowell
who did the damage, scoring
from the faceoff circle
after taking a passout from
behind the net from Ryan
Trottier.
Trowell now has a
team-leading 26 goals to his
credit.
For much of the game the two
goalies held centre stage.
Sarnia's Andrew Masters, who
was named third star, kept
the Legionnaires in the
match with 38 saves. Polasek,
who was selected first star,
kicked out 36 shots.
Afterward, acting Sarnia
head coach Tom Norris said
Masters “gave us a chance to
win. That's all you can ask
from your goalie.”
He added the team lost the
game because of five or six
bad shifts.
St. Thomas goals were
credited to Carter
McCormick, Jesse Anderson,
Jay Dekker and James
Newland.
The Legionnaires are back in
action Sunday when they
travel to Chatham to face
the Maroons. Their next home
game is Thursday, Jan. 22
when they host the London
Nationals.
