Marshall reaches 100 games, Warriors take on the Stars and Rockets

By: Michael Willoughby

The Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors split their weekend games, continuing their climb up the Greater Ontario Hockey League’s (GOHL) Western Conference standings.

Earlier in the week, the Warriors recognized Dominic Marshall for achieving the 100-game GOHL career mark on Oct. 25 against the Elmira Sugar Kings.

Warriors’ head coach Dave Williams shared his thoughts on Marshall eclipsing the century mark, the fourth different Warriors member to accomplish the feat in October.

“I think it's great. It's always something that's a little extra special for the local guys who, you know, when they were younger, probably came here and watched guys ahead of them play here,” Williams said.

“And you know, I think it has a little extra special feeling for the players and their families. They get to do it here in Stratford, in a community that embraces hockey and really supports them. That's a great honour for Dom to have 100 games here, and he's got a little bit more to go here. So, hopefully, get a few more games out of him here in the next couple of years.”

Team co-captain Aaron Green says it’s an honour to play alongside Marshall.

“Dominic is a great teammate. It's an honour to be alongside him here for the last 100 games, and yeah, you just love to see that out of such a hardworking player. He deserves every bit,” Green said.

Defenceman Will Coward praised Marshall for reaching the milestone and for the way his work ethic benefited the team.

“It's really nice for Marshall. You get his 100th game here, and Marshall just makes it easy to play with every night, goes to the hard areas, and does hard work,” Coward said.

The GOHL revealed the latest power rankings on social media, with the Warriors ranked ninth for the first time this season.

On Oct. 30, the Warriors travelled to the Joe Thornton Community Centre in St. Thomas to take on the Stars, who were ranked fourth in the GOHL’s Western Conference and two points ahead of fifth-place Stratford entering the game.

In what was a goaltending duel for most of the first period, the Stars opened the scoring late in the period after a neutral zone turnover led to the home side’s first goal. The game remained 1-0 through the first 40 minutes until an early power-play goal in the third period put St. Thomas up 2-0, just beating Warriors’ netminder Noah Bender, beneath the crossbar and past the goal line.

Despite peppering the Stars’ defence and netminder Dylan Durno with 50 shots, 39 of which were in the final two periods, Stratford’s offence was stonewalled by Durno and dropped their first game in regulation in over a month, 2-0.

Following the game, Williams said despite the number of shots, he would’ve liked to see the team execute better around the opposing net.

“I liked our shot volume. The one thing that I think jumps out is we need to do a better job getting to the net fronts. One thing is trying to get pucks there, which is always good. The second part is making sure you've got bodies around for second shot opportunities,” Williams said.

“I wasn't sure we generated enough second shot opportunities or scoring opportunities given how many pucks we're able to get to the net, so definitely an area that we need to be better.”

The Warriors then travelled to Strathroy to face the Rockets at the West Middlesex Memorial Complex on Oct. 31.

Stratford’s offence was on full display in the first period as Chase Martin scored from Luke Minard and Drew Hodge at 8:14, and less than two minutes later, Max Wildfong scored from Coen Galbraith and Colin Slattery to put the visitors ahead 2-0. Later in the period, just seconds after their third power play ended, Grady Murphy put the Warriors ahead 3-0 on goals from Galbraith and Slattery with 33 seconds left in the period.

The Warriors outshot the Rockets 17-1 after 20 minutes of play.

Marshall’s third goal of the year, scored at 4:04 of the second period, gave the Warriors a 4-0 lead. The Rockets then mounted a comeback, scoring three goals in 10 minutes to trim Stratford's lead to 4-3 heading into the third period. Before the third began, Warriors starting netminder Gage Hurst was replaced by Bender after allowing three goals on 13 shots in the middle frame.

Midway through the period, the Rockets tied the game with just over nine minutes remaining. Bender stopped 17 shots to keep the Warriors even, sending the game to overtime.

In a quick-paced overtime, the Warriors prevailed 58 seconds into the period when Wildfong scored his second goal of the game off a pass from Aaron Green, giving the visitors an extra point in a 5-4 win over the Rockets. Bender earned the win in relief with 19 saves for his sixth of the season.

Wildfong described the play that led to the game-winner and how the team is feeling heading into the key game against the Fort Erie Meteors on Nov. 6 at the William Allman Memorial Arena.

“Me and Greener (Green), we were kind of on like a loose two-on-two, and I was driving the net, and he passed it over. It was a great pass right on my tape, and I just roofed it,” Wildfong said.

“Yeah, the team's feeling good. Kind of let it down a bit Friday, but we're looking to get the winning streak back going again. And I think Friday night against Fort Erie, we're just going to set the tone there, and I think that's going to be a great game.”

For Minard, he’s glad to get his first point of the season, but noted that the team's depth allows various players to contribute offensively, which helps alleviate individual pressure to score every night.

“Yeah, I know it feels good. Obviously, you know you never want to go that many games without getting a point. But you know that's the great thing about us, our team, and this group we have is no one's feeling pressure to score any given night. We can contribute from up and down the lineup. But at the end of the day, like I'm just trying to do what I can to help the team win,” Minard said.

Minard also stated the team is in positive spirits and looking forward to the challenge facing the Meteors, who have the second-highest win percentage in the GOHL (92.9 per cent) heading into the contest.

“We’ve got a big one coming up Friday against Fort Erie, so it'll be a good test for our team just to see how we play, and you know we try to keep this thing going.”

With the split, the Warriors (9-4-0-1) have won nine of their 11 games (9-1-0-1), collecting 19 out of 22 possible points in the streak.