Warriors gain ground in the standings with weekend sweep, Curtin commits to Division 1 hockey

Stratford Warriors forward Dominic Marshall battles for the puck against Sarnia Legionnaires netminder Zack Irwin and forward Sarvir Jaworski, with Coen Galbraith (14) close by, at the William Allman Memorial Arena on Feb. 13.

During Family Day weekend, the Stratford Hunter Steel Warriors faced the Sarnia Legionnaires at the William Allman Memorial Arena, followed by road games against the Elmira Sugar Kings and the rival Listowel Cyclones.

During preparations for the week, Evan Arnold and Grady Murphy reflected on the team’s recent form and the focus for the upcoming weekend.

“Obviously, we had two tough losses, but we bounced back with a big win against St. Marys, and it was a good learning experience for the team, and just coming out and learning from our mistakes and coming out really hard,” Arnold said. “Just keep going, moving our feet at all times and just go, go, go.”

“We weren't at our best, but it was good to pull out a win against the best team in the league. It was pretty good to see that when we showed up to the rink, we were put back as a line (with Coen Galbraith and Dominic Marshall), because a few games before, we were apart because we weren't playing the best,” Murphy said.

“We just keep trying to keep putting points up on the board, keep winning games and try to finish up the season strong.”

On Feb. 11, the Warriors announced defenceman Joseph Curtin has committed to play at Adrian College of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) for next season.

“I am incredibly proud of Joe Curtin and his commitment to continue his hockey career with the Adrian Bulldogs. He is joining an excellent ACHA Division 1 program led by Gary Astalos and a first-class coaching staff,” Warriors director of hockey operations Jason Clarke said in a statement on the team’s website.

Stratford hosted Sarnia for the annual United Way Pass-The-Bucket night. The Warriors honoured the humanitarian organization during the pre-game ceremony.

In the first period, Arnold notched his 12th of the season from Haden Frayne and McQuen Haylock at 7:37, opening the scoring for the Warriors. Late in the opening frame, Max Wildfong scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season, giving the Warriors a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Jonas Schmidt, from Drew Hodge on the powerplay, put the Warriors up 4-0 early in the second period, but the Legionnaires answered with two goals of their own to cut the Stratford lead in half. In the third period, the score remained 4-2, and the Warriors’ offence put on an offensive clinic.

Goals from Arnold, Will Coward, Colin Slattery, Haylock, Frayne and Schmidt put the game out of reach as the home side routed the Legionnaires 10-2 in front of 867 fans. A total of 12 different Warriors’ players tallied a point in the win, with Haylock leading the team with a career-high four points.

Stratford netminder Noah Bender recorded his first win in five starts, stopping 15 of 17 shots and improving his win-loss record to 14-9-0-1 for the season. After the game, Bender told the Times about his bounce-back performance.

“It was good. We came out really strong in the first period. The team did really well. I felt really good in the first period as well. Second period was a little bit slower, and we let them back in a little bit, but then we were able to close out the third, so really, overall, really good,” Bender said.

Stratford head coach Dave Williams expressed appreciation for the team's effort and the offensive breakthrough during the third period.

“We had a good first period, generating a lot of decent scoring opportunities, just unfortunately, I think we hit a few posts in there. I didn't mind how we started there in the second, and they scored those two goals,” Williams said.

“That was maybe a bit of a reminder that we're going to have to keep going here and keep playing. We came alive over the third, which I think is always good for the guys' confidence.”

On Feb. 15, the Warriors travelled to Elmira for the evening matchup with the Sugar Kings.

Stratford put the offensive pressure on Elmira from the early stages of the first period and finally struck paydirt as Aaron Green’s blast from near the blueline connected for his ninth of the season from Lucas Minard and Schmidt with 5:19 left in the opening frame. The Warriors heavily outshot the Sugar Kings 22-6 through 20 minutes.

The Warriors continued to pour on the offence as Frayne scored his fourth of the season from Coward 3:47 into the second period. Quinn Kipfer notched his 12th of the season on the powerplay from Slattery and Coward midway through the middle frame, putting the visitors up 3-0. Slattery has tallied four points in the three-game weekend and recorded a point in four straight.

Schmidt continued his career year with his 20th of the season from Frayne and Mateo Craievich with 5:44 left, giving the Warriors a commanding 4-0 lead. Elmira scored in the final minute of the period to close the deficit to 4-1.

Early in the third period, Marshall sped down the rink and scored his 11th of the season from Wildfong at 5:57. Elmira got a goal late in the final frame, but the Warriors prevailed for a key 5-2 win. Gage Hurst picked up his 12th win of the season with 16 saves on 18 shots.

On Family Day, the Warriors travelled to Listowel as they faced the rival Cyclones.

Slattery got the Warriors on the board from Schmidt and Curtin 1:40 into the game. With 19 seconds left in the opening frame, Haylock scored his 5th of the season from Arnold and Wildfong, and the visitors led 2-0. Arnold recorded two goals and two assists over the weekend, while Wildfong recorded five points.

Coward scored his third goal of the season from Curtin and Dax Vader early in the second period, giving Stratford a 3-0 lead. Listowel responded late in the middle frame, but Rhyse Brown, assisted by Haylock, scored his fourth goal of the season to re-establish the three-goal advantage before the period ended. With two points, Haylock tallied six points over the weekend.

Listowel scored early in the third, but Stratford maintained their lead throughout the rest of the period and ultimately won the game 4-2.

Bender capped off his bounce-back weekend with a solid 31-save performance to pick up his 15th win of the season. Over the three-game weekend, Bender and Hurst provided much-needed strong goaltending as they combined for a 3-0 win-loss record with a 3.00 goals-against average and a save percentage of .900.

With this win, the Warriors climb to fourth place in the Western Conference, tying the London Nationals at 61 points. Their upcoming schedule includes another intense three-game stretch in four days: hosting the St. Thomas Stars on Feb. 20, visiting Waterloo on Feb. 22 for an early afternoon game against the Siskins, and playing their final regular-season home game the next night against the Strathroy Rockets.