Lincolns hit stride in best stretch of young season
- Spencer Seymour
- Oct 15
- 9 min read
By Spencer Seymour
In one week, the St. Marys Lincolns reinserted themselves in the conversation for best in the Western Conference by quelling one of the west’s hottest teams, dismantling the top-ranked squad and walking into a difficult arena and eating the home side’s penalty kill alive.
Head coach Jeff Bradley told the Independent the Lincolns faced different obstacles in each of their three games in four days.
“All three games gave us different challenges,” said Bradley. “The long bus trip and the Vipers’ talent are factors against LaSalle. The game against London is a big game against a top team in our conference that has a lot of skill. And then going into Strathroy, you’re playing in a shoebox there, plus you’ve been on the ice every day from Tuesday to Saturday. We had very different challenges in all three games, and we overcame them all.”
The Lincolns opened their busy schedule on Oct. 8 when they visited the LaSalle Vipers. Not only had the Vipers defeated the Lincolns in the first meeting of the season on Sept. 19, but the Vipers also entered the game on a six-game winning streak. That streak came to an end at the hands of the Lincolns, who managed to capitalize on a late-game man advantage to secure a 3-2 win.
One notable struggle the Lincs had been experiencing was a lack of offensive production by the team’s big-name talent. Thankfully, Lincoln Moore got the team’s first goal of the game five minutes and 25 seconds into the opening period. Ian Inskip tied the game with under 90 seconds left in the first.
A hot start to the second by the Vipers led to a goal by Kade McGeen under five minutes into the period, but one of the players Bradley credited as a standout performer, Chase McDougall, buried on a one-timer set up by Blake Elzinga for his first goal of the season, which also came on the powerplay.
“Chase (McDougall), Devun (Colebrook) and Declan (Ready), those guys specifically, I thought were really good for us,” Bradley said. “They brought energy and physicality that we desperately needed. When we needed them to share a lot of the load, they stabilized everything for us and were a huge part of us winning that hockey game.”
The Lincolns’ powerplay came up clutch when the unit centred by Ryan Hodkinson and featuring Elzinga, Ethan Weir, David Heath and Owen Kalp potted the eventual game-winner with just a minute and 14 seconds left in regulation, with Weir finishing off on a feed from Hodkinson.
With the Lincs going two-for-five on the powerplay and killing off all three LaSalle man advantages, Bradley emphasized the importance of St. Marys’ special teams in getting the two points.
“Our special teams stepped up. The night before going into LaSalle, we talked about the Vipers’ penalty kill because it’s very good and very high-pressure. So for us, it wasn’t as much about attacking as it was keeping possession and having every one of our guys having at least two options when they have the puck, and we’ll find a way to attack when there is an opening. That unit in particular; they were patient the way they needed to be, they worked the puck to where we needed it to go, and ultimately, they got us the game-winner.”
Lincs destroy first-place Nationals with uber-physical masterclass
Just 48 hours later, the Lincolns, appearing shot out of a cannon, played one of the best games any Lincolns’ squad has managed since Bradley took over as head coach, and he couldn’t have raved more emphatically after the Lincs’ 5-1 victory over the Nationals.
“We were so physical and so on top of them that London was letting us do whatever we wanted,” Bradley said. “I was so happy with our team. It was one of the best performances I’ve seen in a long time. We had an amazing team last year, but I don’t know if we played like that in terms of the physicality at any point last year.”
The Lincolns’ hellhound-like intensity began from the opening puck drop, with Bradley noting the line that started the game – Hodkinson, Heath and Owen Voortman – followed by the trio of Moore, McDougall and Jack Clarke, got the Lincolns an early wave of momentum that they never let go of.
“The Hodkinson line gave us a great first shift, they got us two scoring chances and then Jack (Clarke), Chase (McDougall) and Lincoln (Moore) really set the tone for us on the next shift. They go out there and start hitting guys into the parking lot. It was an unbelievable start and set us up to have an unbelievable game pretty much the whole night.
“Those guys are all big, physical guys,” Bradley continued. “Lincoln has that elite skill and I think when you see a guy who has accomplished everything you can accomplish in junior hockey and then seeing two guys like Jack and Chase play the way they did with so much speed and physicality, it’s infectious for the entire team. Jack and Chase were scaring the other team into giving them the puck, and they have plenty of skill themselves, but they wanted to get the puck to Lincoln because, more than anything, they want to beat the other team.”
Clarke netted the first goal of the game, his fourth of the year, just 61 seconds into the opening period, while McDougall delivered the biggest hit of the season so far. Later in the first, Hodkinson put the Lincolns up by two.
In the second, the Lincolns continued getting more production from their big-name talents, with goals by Voortman and Weir. However, arguably the biggest highlight of the period came in the form of a fight in which the Lincolns’ player Declan Ready unequivocally lost. Ready, who is listed at under six feet tall and weighing 170 pounds, went toe-to-toe with the six-foot-three, 209-pound Braxton Mullins.
But as the old adage goes, Mullins won the battle, but Ready won the war, as the fight gave the Nats nothing in the way of momentum, while the Lincolns were unanimously juiced by Ready’s willingness to take the unfavourable matchup.
“What a kid Declan (Ready) is,” Bradley said. “He didn’t win that fight, and he knew it, but we were laughing about it. No one on our team cared that he lost that fight because he was giving up about six inches and 40 pounds, and he goes and grabs that guy and takes that fight without any hesitation. That kid has no fear at all, and he took that fight thinking he was going to do anything for his team. And you look at what that fight led to, London won the fight, but got absolutely no momentum out of it, but we got a lot of momentum from it. Our bench got a huge boost, seeing how fearless Declan was.”
Ready explained his willingness to take the fight.
“It was a really emotional game,” said Ready. “It was my first time playing in the London and St. Marys rivalry, and I loved every second of it. Chase got the puck and I was standing out front, and I just saw (Braxton Mullins) grab me and I knew something was going to happen, and we just looked at each other, and it went from there. In those games, you want to do everything for your team, and to be able to give the team a boost made me feel really good.”
Aydan Doyle found the only goal of the game for the Nats on a third-period powerplay before Moore fired the puck into an empty net to seal the 5-1 win for St. Marys.
The ultra-physical effort by the Lincolns represented the best execution of the in-your-face identity the team has been trying to establish for months.
“We’ve talked all summer about being harder to play against, and being physical in all three zones,” Bradley said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to drill into the players and I feel like we’ve been building to a game like that. It really felt like we needed that game, and not just the win, but the way we played. London is big and they’re fast, and they’re good, and we needed to see if we could do that against a top team. I hope a light switch goes off with our guys and they understand that they can do that, and they can do it for 60 minutes because that’s what we need them to do.”
Not just outstanding offensively and physically, the Lincolns were also smothering on the defensive side of the puck.
“We shut everything down,” said Bradley. “Mike (Herman) is so big on the defence shutting plays down early. I don’t think we gave them a single two-on-one all night. We were suffocating defensively. London couldn’t do anything. I watched the game back and every time their defenceman got the puck, they knew someone was barreling down on them and they would just give it right to us.”
Arguably, some of the best performances on the back end came from first-year blueliners James MacGregor and Luke McMillan, both of whom associate coach Herman, who oversees the defence and penalty kill, had high praise for.
“The first thing that stands out about James (MacGregor) and Luke (McMillan) is the maturity they have as rookies,” said Herman. “In our defence meeting before the game, I had picked up some things in our game to address and clean up a bit and play a more proactive type of defending. It’s not easy to adapt, especially as a young player, but how quickly those two are able to adapt has been amazing.”
Bradley further described the game as a shining example of what they want to play like every night.
“If we can consistently play like that, we have a really good chance to do something special. I want that game to be our standard going forward. I don’t want it to matter who we’re playing; we’re going to play our way and dictate how the game is going to be played. That’s what we did against London. We dictated what that game was going to be, and that needs to be what we do every night.”
Powerplay dominates as Lincs take 4-2 win in Strathroy
With all four goals coming from the powerplay, including goals from both units and the end of a scoring slump for the captain, the Lincs’ momentum continued to build on Oct. 11 when they doubled up the Rockets 4-2, extending the Lincolns’ winning streak to four straight games.
Bradley explained why he was pleased with the team’s effort, even though it wasn’t identical to their stupendous game one night earlier.
“It was a different game than the night before, but I thought we played well,” Bradley said. “In the first period, we certainly outplayed them and we had the lion’s share of the opportunities, and that led to us getting rewarded a bit more in the second period.”
Zachary LeBlanc took advantage of a miscue by the Lincolns in the first period to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead, but as the bench boss alluded to, the Lincolns took control of the scoreboard in the second, first on a one-time blast by Voortman, and then on a wrister from the point by Kalp.
The powerplay’s white-hot night, according to Bradley, was the biggest factor in the team getting the victory on the road.
“We got powerplay goals from both units and they both have different setups. (Owen) Kalp’s unit has the spread formation, and (Chase) MacQueen-Spence’s unit is in the 1-3-1, and we got goals off of both looks. We did a fair amount of work on the powerplay this past week at practice, and it was great to see our guys be focused and execute as well as they did. The powerplay played a role in all three of our wins this week, but especially (against Strathroy), our special teams won us that game.”
In the third, MacQueen-Spence wired a shot by Rockets’ netminder Mason Costa, snapping a seven-game goal drought.
Bradley described being thrilled for the team captain finally finding the back of the net.
“Chase (MacQueen-Spence) has had a really good couple of games for us, specifically against London and Strathroy,” said Bradley. “He’s been snake-bit lately scoring-wise, and I’ve been all over him about shooting the puck more. He loves passing the puck, but he’s got an elite shot, so for him to let one rip and beat the goalie clean, I think that was big for his confidence and I hope it reinforces how amazing his shot is.”
The fourth and final powerplay goal for St. Marys came in the form of an empty netter for Colebrook with just 1.5 left on the clock.
After a very busy stretch that went about as close to perfect as one could reasonably expect for the Lincolns, the head coach made sure to keep things in perspective as they head into a pair of games against two teams who are much better than they were last season, the St. Thomas Stars and Komoka Kings.
“It’s four games in a row here where we’ve played some good hockey, and have been getting more consistent,” Bradley said. “But it’s just four games. We still have 39 games left, and we can’t hang our hats on our last four games. We’ve got two tough games coming up this week against two teams on the up and up, and we want to keep trending in the right direction. If these last few games are an indication, our team is building some really good habits.”
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