By Dan McCaffery
The Sarnia Legionnaires were
knocked out of the Western
Ontario Hockey Conference
playoffs Saturday.
Coach Dan Rose's Jr. 'B'
club dropped a hard-fought
4-2 decision to the the
LaSalle Vipers.
The game, which was played
in the Essex County
community, was closer than
the score would indicate,
with the final LaSalle goal
going into an empty net.
In any case, the Vipers won
the best-of-seven semi-final
series 4-2 in games.
Both teams had a pair of
powerplay tallies.
Tyler Prong and captain
Nathan Mater had the Sarnia
goals, with assists going to
Mitch Read, Davis Boyer,
Hunter Tyczynski and P. J.
Vandervaart.
Chris Pignanelli, Daniel
Beaudoin, Liam McDougall and
Tyler Russell scored for
LaSalle.
Goalie Andrew Masters was
brilliant in the Sarnia
cage, turning aside 46 of 49
shots he faced.
The Legionnaires had 33
shots on LaSalle goalie
Paolo Battisti.
Sarnia started the season
with 13 straight wins, then
ran into a rash of injuries
that toppled it from first
place to third. But the
Legionaries rallied late in
the campaign and headed into
the post-season on a
four-game winning streak.
In the first round of the
playoffs, the Sarnians
eliminated the St. Thomas
Stars 4-2 in games.
But they suffered a serious
setback in that round when
veteran rearguard Connor
Andersen went down with a
season-ending shoulder
injury.
In the semi-finals, the
Legionnaires, backed by the
stellar goaltending of
Masters, took a 2-1 lead in
games before losing the
final three matches.