Lincs win back-to-back on the road despite inconsistency
- Contributed
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Spencer Seymour
Since Nov. 23, the St. Marys Lincolns have been almost mechanical in how consistently strong their performances have been. During that stretch, fans would be hard-pressed to find a game in which, for large swaths of time, the Lincolns didn’t look either good or great.
However, even the best teams won’t stay so good and so consistent every game, but even when the Lincolns stubbed their toes at times in their recent games against the Stratford Warriors and Strathroy Rockets, they still found a way to win.
The Lincolns began a schedule in which four of their next five games were on the road on Jan. 16 when they went up the road to Stratford to face the Warriors. The highly structured play of both teams led to neither giving up much in the first period, with shots reading just 5-4 at the end of 20 minutes. Lincoln Moore opened the scoring for St. Marys, but Max Wildfong answered just eight seconds later for the Warriors.
Head coach Jeff Bradley said he was happy with the team’s overall effort, even if the execution wasn’t perfect.
“Stratford is a good team and it’s a tough task going into a small rink like that where you don’t have a lot of time to make decisions, and I thought we did really well,” said Bradley. “The first period wasn’t our best, but it wasn’t our worst and I thought we did a good job getting through it. The second period was tough to judge because we’re not used to turning pucks over so much, but both teams were doing it because of the pressure from each team.”
The Lincolns struggled mightily in the second, struggling at times just to clear the puck from their zone. Eventually, Haden Frayne scored to give the Warriors a one-goal lead, which held up until the 16:37 mark of the period when Moore found Chase McDougall all alone in the slot, with McDougall firing home the game-tying goal.
“Stratford’s gameplan was pretty apparent,” Bradley said. “They wanted to get pucks in and attack our zone with speed on the forecheck, and we had to adjust to it. They would probably say they carried the play for most of the second, but it wasn’t generating much. They didn’t get a ton of shots and definitely didn’t have a lot of scoring chances. I thought we held down the fort pretty well until Chase (McDougall) got that big goal for us.”
Bradley added the goal by McDougall kicked off one of his best two-game stretches in recent memory.
“It was huge. You don’t want to be going into the third period down a goal against a good team like Stratford. So, getting that goal was big, not only for the team, but for Chase himself. I know he’s been wanting more out of himself and I think that really kicked him off this weekend. He was great in both of our games this weekend.”
The game broke open in the third, with Ryan Hodkinson scoring just 32 seconds into the period, followed by Callum McAuley blasting a one-timer home 59 seconds later. A powerplay goal by Quinn Kipfer momentarily stopped the bleeding for Stratford, but just a minute and a half later, newcomer Pearse Huey lobbed a wrist shot from the point that found its way past Warriors’ netminder Noah Bender, which led to Stratford pulling Bender in favour of Gage Hurst.
It was the second consecutive game in which the Lincolns have forced Stratford into a goalie change mid-game after Bender was pulled following the second period in the first meeting of the two teams on Dec. 11.
Bradley attributed his squad’s better play in the third to “getting back to the gameplan.”
“I thought our third period was fantastic and we deserved the win,” Bradley said. “We stopped trying to make plays in our own zone and started flipping pucks into the neutral zone. I think that took a little bit out of Stratford and took away some of the momentum. It was a funky night for the goalies, especially in the third period. Six goals in the third period is not like either of our teams, so that’s a little different for both teams.”
The bench boss was also pleased with the steady play of Huey on the back end in his debut.
“We’re really happy with Pearse (Huey). We did enough watching of video on him to know what he was, and we were looking for a guy who limits mistakes, defends well and doesn’t try to do too much. We wanted a stable player back there, and that’s what he is.”
Kipfer once again brought the game back within a goal for the Warriors 78 seconds later, but an empty netter by Hodkinson iced the game in a 6-4 final. Colby Booth-Housego got the win in his return to the Lincolns’ crease.
It wasn’t all good news for the Lincolns, however, as forward Oliver Lacko left the game with an injury. Lacko didn’t return and didn’t dress the next night in Strathroy.
Lincs grind out feisty 4-3 win in Strathroy
While their game against Stratford saw inconsistency in how the team performed as a whole from period to period, the Lincolns’ game 24 hours later in Strathroy saw inconsistency in how each line performed.
“I thought there were some guys that played well, and I thought there were some guys that did not play well at all,” Bradley said. “It seemed like our mind was elsewhere for some of our guys. I thought (Ryan) Hodkinson’s line with (Blake) Elzinga and (Declan) Ready played really well. They do everything right. They don’t try to do too much. They all offer something different. Anytime things are bad, I want to throw all three of those guys out, and it’s nice to have a line like that.”
Bradley also mentioned two blossoming mainstays of the Lincolns’ penalty kill – McDougall and Devun Colebrook – as well as affiliate player Maddyx Chaput, as turning in strong showings.
“Chase (McDougall), Devun (Colebrook) and Callum (McAuley) played really well. Maddyx (Chaput) had a really good first junior hockey game. Chase and Devin played quite a bit. They were on a penalty kill together, and it’s what we need and expect out of them.
“Mike (Herman) sees Chase as a fit on the penalty kill, and I think giving Chase a role like that, he takes pride in it,” Bradley continued. “Chase is a very trustworthy player and he brings a lot of what we need, so for him to have the weekend he had was really good for him.”
In a bizarre start to the game, the Rockets took so long coming onto the ice for the start of the game, it earned the home side a delay of game penalty at the start of the contest, setting up the first goal of the game coming just a minute and 14 seconds in when McAuley ripped home his seventh of the year. Just over 90 seconds later, Blake Elzinga finished off a sweet feed from Hodkinson to snap a nine-game goal drought.
Midway through the first, Ian Nurton cut the Lincolns’ lead to one, but just under six minutes later, Ready restored the two-goal advantage with another powerplay goal. A powerplay goal by Zachary LeBlanc late in the first once again made it a one-goal game.
Ethan Weir scored another powerplay marker in the second, which eventually held up as the game-winning goal. LeBlanc once again brought the deficit down to one for the Rockets, but Strathroy couldn’t find the equalizer, with Booth-Housego once again earning the win in goal, this time making 34 saves in the winning bid.
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