Lincs keep finding ways to win with strong back-to-back efforts

Chase MacQueen-Spence celebrates scoring one of his two goals during the St. Marys Lincolns’ 4-3 shootout win on Oct. 17 over the St. Thomas Stars.

By Spencer Seymour

Truly great teams don’t play perfectly every night, but they still find ways to win.

That is precisely what the St. Marys Lincolns did on Oct. 17 against the St. Thomas Stars and Oct. 18 versus the Komoka Kings.

In the first half of their back-to-back, the Lincolns had a rare series of defensive miscues leading to a handful of first-period breakaways and odd-man rushes. Head coach Jeff Bradley noted he was happy with the team’s ability to squeak out the two points despite a flawed execution.

“I thought we were just okay,” said Bradley. “We gave up a lot of chances that we don’t normally do, and chances we don’t want to be giving the other team. I don’t think that was our absolute best. Having almost a full week between games, it can be hard to be sharp at all times, so I think it’s just a matter of getting a little bit more in sync and continuing to create the chances we did, and it will be sorted out. It was one of those games where you have to gut out a win, and we did that.”

One of those high-danger chances was snuck past goaltender Brogan Colquhoun by Stars’ forward Myles Dunn for the first goal of the game, seven minutes and nine seconds into the opening period.

“When you’re not sharp, speed can kill, and St. Thomas is very fast,” Bradley said. “They are good with the puck and those elements gave us a couple of problems. But I think we gave them more problems than they gave us. We were a little out of sync, but we outshot them, we out-chanced them and we ended up winning the game, so that’s definitely a silver lining.”

The Lincolns found the equalizer 10 and a half minutes later with the first goal in the (Greater Onatario Hockey League) GOHL career of James MacGregor, with the lone assist going to his defence partner, Luke McMillan. MacGregor, who scored the goal against Dylan Durno, a goalie he played with last year, expressed relief about finally getting his first career goal.

“It was so nice to get it out of the way,” MacGregor told the Independent post-game. “I’ve gotten a lot of good chances so far and just haven’t been able to capitalize yet, but now, finally scoring my first against my old goalie, that was awesome and definitely special. I didn’t get the opportunity to say something to him on the ice, but I’ll definitely send him a text tonight.”

MacGregor described the play that culminated with him firing home his first goal.

“As I was coming up the ice, I kind of lost the puck. But I got it back and I knew there was a guy on my back, so I knew kicking it out wasn’t going to be the play. I kept taking it into the offensive zone, and I saw the defender take a step wide, and I took a step to the middle on him and ripped it, and luckily it went in.”

In the second frame, Chase MacQueen-Spence made it two straight games with a goal when he blasted home a powerplay marker just over eight and a half minutes into the period. The Stars responded two minutes later with Cade Kinnear burning the Lincolns off an errant turnover by Ethan Weir in the St. Marys end.

The Lincolns’ captain found his second of the period, once again on a Lincolns’ man advantage – MacQueen-Spence’s fifth of the season – at the 13:10 mark of the second, putting the Lincolns back ahead by one heading into the final period of regulation.

Despite controlling the game for the majority of the night, the Lincolns couldn’t find more breathing room, which came back to haunt them when a pass by Tyran Lawson bounced off a body right back to him, before getting shot into the back of the Lincolns’ net.

After overtime solved nothing, the game went to a shootout, during which Lincoln Moore scored the only goal and Colquhoun turned away three St. Thomas shooters to secure the 4-3 victory.

When asked what it says about the team that they found a way to win in spite of their execution being far from perfect, Bradley credited the Lincs for their work ethic and resilience.

“It says they compete hard, even when we don’t quite have our absolute best,” Bradley said. “We didn’t fold, our want to win was there and you need that when your execution isn’t perfect at every moment. We did what we needed to do, and that to me is a nice sign for the future.”

Lincs dominate high-octane Kings

One night later, against another team like the Stars playing far better hockey this year than last, the Lincolns carried over their consistent compete level and improved their overall play to earn a 2-0 win over the Komoka Kings.

Bradley said he was very happy with his team’s performance in Komoka.

“Aside from a couple of breakdowns in the neutral zone, we handled that game and were in control for a lot of it,” said Bradley. “Their goaltender played really well and, without him, the score could have been quite a bit lopsided. Komoka plays really hard and they play with pace, and it’s nice to have those games because they harden you a little bit more each time. We showed, especially late in the game when we locked it down, we’re not a fragile team.”

Kings’ netminder Brock Lane single-handedly held Komoka in the game, ending the night with 30 saves, most of which were very difficult.

The Lincolns finally broke through with six minutes to go in the middle stanza when Devun Colebrook, who continues to prove himself as an emerging young star for the Lincs, created a shorthanded breakaway off of a successful poke-check, firing it past Lane to give St. Marys the icebreaker.

In the third, Jack Clarke managed to get all alone in the slot and pounded a slapshot past Lane to extend the Lincolns’ lead to two.

Goaltender Vaughn Barr earned his first career GOHL shutout, making 23 saves in the Lincolns’ crease. Bradley was thrilled to sing the praises of both Barr and Colquhoun for their consistently strong play in between the pipes.

“I was happy for Vaughn (Barr) to get that shutout. He has given us some really great minutes. He’s come in and given us a chance to win every night. Having two goaltenders is a real luxury in this league, and we have two really good guys who we can put in and feel confident in, so we’re very fortunate for both Vaughn and Brogan (Colquhoun).”