Lincolns stumble in two straight losses; Hodkinson, Weir return

Chase MacQueen-Spence scores the lone St. Marys Lincolns’ goal in their 2-1 loss to the LaSalle Vipers on Sept. 19. The Lincolns also fell to the Chatham Maroons on Sept. 21 by a score of 5-2.

By Spencer Seymour

In the span of a week, the St. Marys Lincolns went from a lofty peak to a frustrating valley.

Just days after their strong start to the year, which saw the Lincs win back-to-back games, the good news kept coming as the team reacquired forwards Ryan Hodkinson and Ethan Weir.

Lincolns’ general manager Pat Powers noted the additions instantly made the Lincolns a much stronger team.

“Adding these two elite players definitely makes us more difficult to play against,” said Powers. “We never want to look forward to the playoffs before we make it, but when the playoffs start, if we’re in it, this makes us extremely hard for a team to match up with us defensively in a line-matching scenario. Ethan (Weir) will be one of the premier scorers in the league this year and Ryan (Hodkinson) will be one of the top faceoff men who can play in all situations.”

Unfortunately for the Lincolns, the additions were where the recent good news ended as they suffered two straight losses, first at the hands of the LaSalle Vipers, and then with a loss to the reigning Sutherland Cup Champion Chatham Maroons.

The first loss came on Sept. 19 when the Lincolns fell to the Vipers. After a strong start to the game, the visitors from LaSalle found their footing approximately halfway through the period, to which the Lincolns struggled to respond. Ultimately, St. Marys dropped the contest by a score of 2-1, lacking the intensity displayed in their first two games.

According to head coach Jeff Bradley, the team didn’t display the mental fortitude needed to overcome LaSalle once they got into the game.

“I didn’t think it was very good,” Bradley said of his team’s performance. “In the first five minutes, we showed up and had a lot of scoring chances, and then, it seemed as though we thought maybe it would be easy. I think once LaSalle got settled in, it was clear they had a gameplan that they were going to make us work to get pucks and battle to get through them. We just weren’t willing to do that enough to win.”

Bradley added his team wasn’t pushing back hard enough to break through the Vipers’ defensive presence at centre ice.

“LaSalle seemed to be content with sitting back in the neutral zone a little bit and then forcing us to get pucks behind them and make us try to retrieve them. Instead of doing that, we tried to go through them and it caused turnovers and some big mistakes where we didn’t do some fundamental things. As a whole, there was more we didn’t like than what we liked.”

Despite the disappointing performance, Bradley noted there was one bright spot – goaltender Vaughn Barr, appearing in his first game of his junior career, who Bradley said gave his team a chance to win.

“Vaughn played really well. It’s unfortunate that the team in front of him didn’t show up enough to get that win for him. It could have been a really good experience for our team and a really good experience for Vaughn, but unfortunately, we weren’t there to help him out. That was his first junior game; he got to do it in front of his home crowd as a 16-year-old against 19- and 20-year-olds, and he played amazing.”

Chase MacQueen-Spence scored the lone St. Marys goal just 59 seconds into the first period, but from there, the Vipers neutralized the Lincolns. Second-period goals by Ian Inskip and Kieran McNally along with a 40-save effort by goaltender Adam Bartel lifted LaSalle to victory.

While acknowledging the disappointing showing, Bradley kept in perspective the youth of the team and the season.

“We’ve got young guys who are still growing and learning how to play in this league. Even our older guys are in roles they haven’t necessarily been in in the past. There are ebbs and flows to that growth. We were feeling really good after the Caledonia game (on Sept. 13) and then got Ryan (Hodkinson) and Ethan (Weir) coming back, and we were all excited. Then, having a gut punch like that, it’s just a reminder that we’re still in that learning process.”

Inexperience costs Lincs against wily Maroons

Though they plugged the intensity leak 48 hours later in their trip to Chatham, the Lincolns’ youth ended up biting them as inexperienced mistakes led to a 5-2 loss to the Maroons.

Associate coach Mike Herman said the coaching staff was pleased with their compete level, and even though there were blunders, they left the building feeling positive for the team’s long-term outlook.

“Chatham is a very good team and it felt like they were opportunistic, which is how it always feels like they are against us,” Herman told the Independent. “We’ll carry a lot of the play and get a lot of good scoring chances, and then they find a way to go the other way to score. I think they might just be a step ahead of us right now in terms of how mature they play, but there’s no question in my mind we can get there.”

As would become a theme of the night, a defensive miscue led to the Maroons scoring the game’s first goal under three minutes in, with Dylan Richter batting in a loose puck in front of the net. Jack Clarke’s first as a Lincoln less than two minutes later, coming on a St. Marys powerplay, tied the game at one apiece, but Chatham restored their one-goal lead with a powerplay marker of their own from Alexander Lisi.

Jaxon Priddle potted another powerplay goal for Chatham in the second, but Lincoln Moore responded two minutes and 11 seconds later with a blistering deke through two Maroons before ripping a shot from a tight angle up and over the shoulder of Samuel DiBlasi.

Herman noted Moore as being the team’s offensive catalyst through the first four games of the regular season, and praised several other returning players for their performances on Sept. 21.

“Lincoln (Moore) has been that guy since the beginning of the season. It’s unbelievable how much he’s dominating out there physically in every way, but I would say Chase (McDougall) has had a couple of really good games. He’s played with energy and he’s used that energy really effectively. He’s been handling the puck well and making plays. And on the back end, Owen (Kalp) and (Jacob) Montesi have been so rock solid.”

In the third period, Lisi scored his second of the night before Priddle did the same with an empty netter, sealing a 5-2 win for the Maroons.

With several defensive errors leading to Chatham goals, along with several more that were denied as part of Brogan Colquhoun’s 39-save effort, Herman said the mistakes are part of the team’s growing phase.

“We’re still figuring it out,” said Herman. “We’re still in that stage of everyone getting on the same page, and we’ve had some roster changes. We had long stretches where we did really well, and while there were things to correct, I think we came out of that game believing we could play with those guys and beat them. We still have to try to win games, obviously, but we have to be patient and keep teaching.”