Lincs end three-game losing skid with outstanding showing in Elmira

Jack Clarke crashes the net and scores one of his two goals in the St. Marys Lincolns’ 5-2 win over the Elmira Sugar Kings on Sept. 28.

By Spencer Seymour

“We needed that.”

Head coach Jeff Bradley summed up the feeling after the St. Marys Lincolns ended a three-game losing streak on Sept. 28 with a 5-2 victory over the Elmira Sugar Kings, a victory that allowed everyone to breathe and remember that the sky isn’t falling for the Lincolns.

“I was really happy with how we played,” Bradley told the Independent. “It was a game we needed and a result we needed, and to have it come against one of, if not the top team that we’ve faced thus far, and we’ve played some really good teams, that was big for our team.”

The start to the game for the Lincolns saw them face a fast and heavy attack from the high-powered Sugar Kings, but even though the Lincs were outshot 11-7 in the opening 20 minutes, according to the bench boss, they weathered the storm as well as they could have.

“Elmira came at us really hard, but we didn’t lose our composure at all, which was great to see,” said Bradley. “Brogan (Colquhoun) held us in there as we got through the fire. We withstood it really well and didn’t get down. We backed off midway through the first period when being aggressive wasn’t really benefiting us, and that allowed us to settle into the game more. Eventually, things started going our way, and we gained a lot more confidence as the game went on.”

The first goal of the game didn’t come until three minutes and 15 seconds into the second frame, when Ryder Roberson broke the ice for Elmira. However, around eight minutes later, former Sugar King Jack Clarke delivered a powerful answer in the form of two goals in 31 seconds, the first of which came on a St. Marys powerplay.

Bradley described the quick-strike goals by Clarke, who was playing on a new-look line as the centreman between Chase MacQueen-Spence and Lincoln Moore, as being a shot in the arm for the Lincs’ confidence level.

“Getting a powerplay goal was nice, but then getting the second goal by Jack (Clarke) was really big, too. Knowing that you’ve been hanging on for a little bit and withstanding a lot of pressure by the other team, and then you pot two quick goals like that, and both were not flukey goals at all, it reminds you that you can put the puck in the net and it gives the whole team extra confidence.

“For Jack (Clarke), that was his first opportunity this season being the centreman with accomplished 20-year-old guys like Chase (MacQueen-Spence) and Lincoln (Moore), and he went out and scored two goals,” Bradley continued. “He made the most of his opportunity. Jack is a real hockey player and he is a confident kid, but he’s still fairly young, and having the success he had in the role he was in really helped him play even more confidently than he already was.”

Just over five minutes later, Devun Colebrook fired home his first Greater Ontario Hockey League (GOHL) goal to put the Lincs up by a pair. Elmira brought it back to within one before the end of the period, but Colebrook’s goal eventually went down as the game-winner.

“We have needed more depth scoring, so to get one from Devun (Colebrook) was really good for us,” Bradley said. “We love Devun as a player. We track everything, and Devun does great with so many things. He doesn’t turn the puck over very often. He hits a ton of guys. We’ve been thrilled with him. He contributes in a lot of other ways, but him getting that goal was great for our team, and great for him.”

With 96 seconds left in the third frame, Moore ripped a shot off the inside post to give the Lincolns a two-goal advantage before an empty netter by Owen Voortman sealed the 5-2 victory.

The win provided much-needed relief after the Lincs lost 3-2 to the Port Colborne Sailors in overtime 24 hours previously.

A poor showing by the Lincs in the first period led to PJ Alexander and Ian Robinson scoring for the visiting Sailors in the opening period. Bradley said the uninspired performance was the biggest factor in the defeat.

“We’re competing against ourselves when we have a bad first period like that, and spot a good, well-coached team two goals in the first period,” Bradley said. “We had maybe one or two guys who showed up in the first period, and that isn’t going to beat a team of 19 that was working as hard as Port Colborne was. I liked what we did in the second and third periods, but trying to make up ground after a first period like the one we had is a very hard way to win a game.”

Between execution and mental attention to detail, Bradley detailed the problems stemming from a concentration issue.

“It’s a matter of focus to me. We certainly don’t practice flying around the zone and winging it. We practice in lanes and with routes, but in the first period, we were not executing. So, it’s either a simple lack of execution or lack of concentration, one of the two, and I think (against Port Colborne), it just came down to a lack of concentration.”

The Lincolns turned in much stronger play through the final two periods, getting rewarded with a powerplay goal by David Heath – the first in his GOHL career – and the first goal since returning to the Lincolns from Ethan Weir. With the game deadlocked at the end of regulation, it went into overtime, where Robinson one-timed home the winner for the Sailors.

Bradley, while disappointed with the loss, highlighted the good aspects of the team’s final 40 minutes.

“We decided that we wanted to play and compete and try to win,” said Bradley. “We were more careful with the puck, we were much more physical and we just competed; simple as that. In the second and third, we didn’t make things easy on them. There were definitely some positives there after the first period.”