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Sarnia, ON -
The Sarnia Legionnaires made a statement Thursday
night with an 8-3 victory over the St. Thomas Stars.
It came one night after losing to the London
Nationals 4-1 in which Head Coach Dan Rose said they
played well, but fell asleep at certain times during
the game that ended up costing them the win. But
against St. Thomas, Sarnia pounced on multiple
opportunities to earn the two points.
"Our
effort in the first two periods last night
transferred over to this game today," said Rose. "We
really came out flying. We let up in the third."
Sarnia had
a 4-0 lead after the first twenty minutes of play.
Shawn Waldie picked up a power play goal to open the
scoring, picking up the second rebound put on net
before finally banging it past Michael Slaats who
had a challenging night in goal.
Nathan
Mater would score a pair in the period, as Mater
would feed Waldie going to the net, and would pick
up a loose puck after Waldie let it come off his
stick to earn his first of the night. Anthony Donati
would score in the slot to make it a 3-0 game and
Mater would get his second of the period alone in
front with a back hand shot, as replacement goalie
Jacob Tugnutt allowed his first goal of the night.
Sarnia
would only score once in the second period as Tyler
Cicchini would pick up another rebound goal as
Slaats would return into net and allow his fourth
goal of the game, as the Legionnaires lead 5-0 after
two periods.
Michael
Sollazzo would get the Legionnaires sixth straight
goal to open the third, beating Slaats on a delayed
penalty breakaway for a 6-0 Sarnia lead.
St. Thomas
would spoil Kyle Washers shutout by picking up a
rebound to get their first of the period, but Sarnia
would answer right back as Evan Dixon would pick the
puck off the Stars defencemen stick at the blue
line, get a shot on net and Andrew Sokol would put
home the rebound.
Matt
Cimetta would score a similar goal, picking up a
rebound in the slot off a Jason Teschke shot as the
Legionnaires lead 8-1 with fifteen minutes remaining
in the game.
St. Thomas
would score twice more as Drew Collinson would score
a pair, including one on the power play, and another
off a rebound, but it would be as close as the Stars
would come in the 8-3 loss.
 In
a bizarre strategy, St. Thomas throughout the third
would rotate their two goalies after every whistle
stoppage, As Slaats would finish the game allowing
seven goals on 33 shots while Jacob Tugnutt allowed
one goal on six shots. Kyle Washer played the entire
game for Sarnia and made 30 saves for the victory.
"I thought
our guys stayed really focused and disciplined
tonight and stayed out of the box. There were
penalties at the end but that was just both teams
getting them."
Rose
changed his lines tonight trying to combine speed,
power and skill on all lines. Rose thought that one
of his lines had to many play makers, and wanted to
get a goal scorer and a power forward on each line.
"We
changed the lines in Strathroy just to try and get
more grit on each line. We like to have a bit of
grit, a bit of play making and a bit of scoring. It
gives us a lot more balance."
Sarnia
remains five points ahead of London for first place
in the Western Conference with a game in hand.
Sarnia will take on Leamington on Saturday night in
Leamington.
Follow Sarniasports on twitter
@sarniasports.
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