Lincs extend win streak to nine as Hodkinson narrows ‘Chase of Chase’
By Spencer Seymour
When you score 22 goals in two games, you’re bound to get some goofy stats.
Blake Elzinga, for example, had two goals and four assists on the St. Marys Lincolns’ Pink in the Rink night Oct. 16, the exact same stat line he had in the 2025 iteration of the Lincolns’ annual breast cancer awareness game, tying the Lincolns’ Greater Ontario Hockey League-era record for most points in a game, set by Elzinga and Kalp last year and equalled by Ryan Hodkinson earlier this season (spoiler alert: more on Hodkinson later).
Or you could look at the Lincolns setting a new all-time franchise record for fastest three powerplay goals, with Devun Colebrook, Oliver Lacko and Owen Bruining all scoring in the span of a minute and 56 seconds during a five-minute major powerplay.
Or how that very man advantage made the Lincolns a completely nonsensical three-for-one on the powerplay at that point in the game, meaning their powerplay percentage was 300 per cent, and when they scored a goal on their second powerplay of the night, making them a just-as-ridiculous four-for-two, it was an unheard of case of a powerplay scoring a goal and having their percentage go down, with the Lincolns dropping to a measly 200 per cent on the night.
They tied a GOHL-era team record for most goals in a single game. Eleven skaters posted multi-point games and they forced their opponent into switching goaltenders twice in the same game. All while the Lincolns had just 15 skaters dressed, with Owen Miniotas and Campbell Lehto suspended, Miniotas for two games and Lehto for one, and Camden Kean away for school-related reasons. And yet it was the Canadians who were in desperate need for more troops.
The Lincolns’ 13-1 win over the Welland Canadians was dumb. It was silly. It was a nature documentary about a hungry lion and a wounded gazelle.
But, for a team with high aspirations and a high standard of play, head coach Jeff Bradley said outmatching an opponent so dramatically actually made it hard for the team to actually test their gameplan against some true resistance.
“It’s difficult playing teams like that because we don’t want to punish our guys for another team not playing well,” said Bradley. “We have our plan and our standard, and we need to work on the powerplay and we need to work on the penalty kill. We have things we need to work on and we’re not going let another team dictate that, so yes, sometimes it’s hard to be focused when it’s 6-0 10 minutes into the game, but we just have to play our game and we have plans we have to stick to.”
The litany of goalscorers for the Lincolns included Ethan Weir, who had a hat-trick, as well as Bruining, Elzinga, Hodkinson and Oliver Lacko each having two, and individual goals by Colebrook and Mikey Pope.
Among the many different ways in which the Lincolns dominated Welland, the first period continued to be a trend for St. Marys, outshooting the Canadians 24-5 and leading 6-0 after the opening frame.
Add those totals to the seven previous games in their win streak, and you have a run where the Lincolns outshot their opponents 137-31 in the first period of their eight straight wins and outscored their opponents 24-1.
But with a game being all but over essentially before it began, the question became would there be a hangover when the Lincolns retook the ice just 24 hours later in Komoka.
You may not believe it from looking at a scoring summary that saw the Lincolns leading 3-1 after the opening 20 minutes, but the Lincs’ bench boss wasn’t at all satisfied with what he saw.
“I didn’t think we were very good at all in the first period,” Bradley said. “I thought we were complacent. I thought we made lazy plays. I didn’t think we were focused whatsoever. I thought we made lazy plays. I didn’t think we were focused whatsoever.”
Bradley detailed the blunt conversation held inside the dressing room in the first intermission.
“I went into the room after the first period and said, ‘I don’t know if it’s playing a team last night that you can score 20 goals on if you really try or going into a rink that doesn’t have a tonne of people in it on a Saturday night, but that’s the game that’s in front of us and that’s the game we’ve got to play.’
“We have to play a certain style and a certain way at all times because we have to understand that we can’t just turn that on when we feel like,” Bradley continued. “We’re either the team we want to be or we’re not, and we have to start fighting like the team we want to be.”
According to Bradley, he saw some of the elements he wanted to see in the final 40 minutes.
“I saw a little bit more urgency,” said Bradley. “I saw a little bit more fight. I still thought there were some pretty bad plays by us, but enough to get away with winning the game by six goals. The turnovers in the middle of the ice need to get cleaned up. They’re arrogant plays and the Stratfords, the Chathams, the Listowels of the world, they will eat us up for that stuff. I hope we learn that lesson now.”
While the powerplay managed to go two-for-three, it did look inconsistent at times. The penalty kill, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically poor, allowing three goals on seven Komoka powerplays.
Hodkinson and Callum McAuley each had two-goal efforts, with McAuley adding three assists and Bruining, Colebrook, Elzinga, Lacko and Jack Taylor each chipping in a goal.
However, in the eyes of the head coach, it was one of the team’s newest blueliners, Christopher Mabey, who was the team’s top performer.
“It’s been a bit of a tough start to Christopher’s (Mabey) junior career, but it seems like he’s started trending in the right direction and he’s looking a lot more confident. He’s being physical. I think he’s making better plays and he’s being more comfortable out there. It’s one thing to skate and practice. It’s another thing to get into game shape and have people coming at you at all times. I thought he was probably our best player.”
Hodkinson closing gap on GOHL-era assists record
The “Chase of Chase” continued for Hodkinson, who, with an assist against the Kings, now sits at 111 career assists, just two shy of Chase MacQueen-Spence’s 113. He will have two chances to tie and break MacQueen-Spence’s record, set just last season, when the Lincolns have back-to-back road games, first against the Sarnia Legionnaires Oct. 22 before heading to St. Thomas Oct. 23 for a rematch of the Lincs’ only loss of the season against the Stars.
As of the Independent’s press time, Hodkinson leads the entire GOHL in points with 32 in just 12 games, including 10 goals and 22 assists.
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