Ferguson dazzles as Warriors bash Legionnaires

On Jan. 21, the Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors looked to get back to their winning ways as they prepared for their games against the Sarnia Legionnaires.

Head coach Dave Williams says that despite Sarnia’s record, it is never a guarantee to get a win.

“You can never approach every game like you have to play your best, best game. It should never matter who you're playing or where, when you're playing in the season, or anything like that. Every game should be played the same way,” Williams said.

“I think the teams that have the most success typically play with that consistency, game in and game out, because it's that hard to win, and there's lots of parity in our league. I know they haven't won (Sarnia), but they played some teams incredibly tight here recently, so you know, we just must go in and play the way we're capable of playing, and I think we'll be fine.”

Stratford made the trek through the snow-squalled roads to the Pat Stapleton Arena in Sarnia for their game with the last-place Sarnia Legionnaires on Jan. 22.

The Legionnaires struck first 2:48 into the first period after the shot bounced past Warriors netminder Gage Hurst. Stratford responded at 5:24 with Drew Hodge scoring his second of the season from Evan Arnold and Max Wildfong.

Sarnia retook the lead at the 6:36 mark, but the goal at 8:47 by Dax Vader from Lucas Minard and Jonas Schmidt put the visitors level again. The Warriors heavily outshot the home side 26-6 through the first 20 minutes but were unable to score more goals in the opening frame.

Seventy-three seconds into the second period, Evan Arnold scored his 10th of the season from Wildfong to put the Warriors up 3-2. A defensive error led to Sarnia tying the game at three apiece at the 5:23 mark.

Colin Slattery’s eighth of the season on the powerplay from Quinn Kipfer and Hodge put the Warriors back up by a goal at 7:15. From there, the Warriors shifted momentum and put on a relentless offensive display on the Legionnaires.

The barrage began after the Warriors were rewarded with a four-minute powerplay after the Sarnia slewfoot penalty. Aaron Green scored with 1:34 left in the middle frame, followed by Cruz Ferguson scoring his first as a member of the Warriors less than a minute later.

Stratford continued their barrage early in the third period when Ferguson scored his second goal of the game, 17 seconds into the period, followed by Schmidt tallying his 17th of the season on the powerplay, the Warriors' fourth of the game with the man advantage. Ferguson finished off his solid performance with a hat trick at the eight-minute mark and scored his fourth of the game with 41 seconds left.

Hurst shook off a tough start and got the win with 16 saves. Ferguson led the Warriors in scoring with four goals and an assist. A total of 13 Warriors players recorded a point in the win.

After the game, Williams says he liked the production of scorers and the response from the team against Sarnia after a tough first period.

“You never like giving up the first goal and kind of getting behind here two, one, you know, they're obviously a hungry team looking for their first win,” Williams said.

“It took us a little bit, maybe, to find our game, and once we did, I thought we did a number of good things offensively that hopefully we can take some confidence from –any time you have a night like tonight where you score a little bit like that, and you get some goals spread around amongst a few different guys.”

Wildfong says the key to the offensive turnaround in the late stage of the second period is to provide an optimistic approach.

“I just think keep it positive with our line mates, just moving the puck well and shooting the puck and stopping at the net, I think those are key things that make us come back in the game and make us take the lead,” Wildfong said.

When asked about his four-goal, five-point performance, Ferguson explained his willingness to contribute to the Warriors.

“I was brought in to be a goal scorer, but I'm here to do anything the team needs me to do. If that means adapting my playstyle, that's something I can do,” Ferguson said.

With the win, the Warriors improved to 23-7-2-2 in the season, fifth in the Western Conference.