Ethan Coups launches the puck towards the net during the St. Marys Lincolns’ 6-0 win over the Komoka Kings on Feb. 8. Coups is on a four-game point streak and is currently playing some of the best hockey of his GOJHL career. Photo by Spencer Seymour
By Spencer Seymour
Another week, another blemish-free set of games for the St. Marys Lincolns, who extended their winning streak to 15 games, the longest segment of consecutive wins in the entire Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) this season.
The Lincolns began a back-to-back on Feb. 7 when they hosted the Strathroy Rockets, the team currently in a position to play the Lincs in the opening round of the playoffs. After a first period in which the Lincolns’ play only met their high standard in fits and spurts, the squad turned 40 near-flawless minutes to cruise to a 6-1 victory over the Rockets.
Head coach Jeff Bradley told the Independent the team was ready for the low-event strategy implemented by the Rockets.
“We talked about what to expect from Strathroy and we knew that they would pull back, let us have the puck and try to play pretty stingy defence in their zone. The big thing for us was playing with speed and pace in their zone, and for the most part, we did that. We got a bit too deliberate in the last half of the first period, but when we got back to having that pace to our game in the second and third, I thought we showed we could do well against a team like that.”
Five minutes and 19 seconds into the game, Kyle Morey rocketed a blink-and-you-miss-it wrist shot off a faceoff by Strathroy netminder Brady Galbraith to give St. Marys a 1-0 lead. Lincoln Moore was credited with the only assist on Morey’s fourth goal of the season.
Coach Bradley praised Morey and Moore, along with their linemate Chase MacQueen-Spence, for leading the charge against the Rockets.
“It’s getting there more and more every game, especially the line of Chase (MacQueen-Spence), Lincoln (Moore) and Kyle (Morey). That was our best line (against Strathroy). They were forechecking. They were finishing checks. At times, it looked like they were toying with their opponent. The chemistry between those guys has grown game-by-game and I’m sure it will continue going in the right direction.”
Morey finished the game with a goal and two assists while Moore picked up a goal and two helpers, and MacQueen-Spence had a goal as part of a two-point night.
Almost exactly nine minutes later, a pass from behind the goal line by Cole Dotterman hit off Lincolns’ forward Cohen Bidgood and deflected into the St. Marys net, tying the game at one apiece and giving Dotterman four goals on the year.
The only man advantage of the opening frame went to the Rockets, which the Lincolns successfully killed off. St. Marys ended the game successfully neutralizing all six Strathroy powerplays.
“Strathroy has a different powerplay formation than we’ve encountered this year,” said Bradley. “Their powerplay was much more spread out than the typical 1-3-1 formation, so we adjusted from our typical aggressive diamond to a passive box formation. It’s a fairly tough system to adjust to this far into the season, but it keeps things fresh for the players, and it’s a credit to all the guys on our penalty kill for executing it as well as they did.”
Heading into their next game on Feb. 14, the Lincolns have 31 consecutive successful penalty kills and just one powerplay goal against on the last 33 man advantages they have faced.
The Lincolns emerged from the dressing room for the second stanza with a renewed vigour, scoring three times in the first 10 minutes of the period to go ahead 4-1. Cohen Bidgood scored first when he beat Galbraith on a breakaway for his fifth of the season. Almost exactly five minutes later, a bold decision by MacQueen-Spence to not shoot a sure-fire powerplay one-timer proved genius when, just seconds later, he set up Ryder Livermore’s first goal of the campaign.
MacQueen-Spence followed it up a minute and a half later with a goal of his own, his 18th of the year, assisted by Morey and Moore. One recent change to that line was the shift from wing to centre by MacQueen-Spence, who Bradley credited for continuing to step up and display tremendous leadership.
“It can be intimidating for some guys when you have a Memorial Cup Champion on one side of you and a guy who played three years of major junior on the other side, but he’s not intimidated at all. He’s a leader on this team, he understands that he sets the standard for that line being the centre. Everything runs through Chase on that line, and this is the time of the year when a guy like Chase has to step up, and that’s what he’s doing.”
Luca Spagnolo added a powerplay goal and Moore buried his 22nd of the season in the third period to get the Lincolns to the 6-1 final score.
In goal, Nico Armellin turned in a triumphant 21-save effort for St. Marys. The record for wins by a rookie goaltender is also within Armellin’s reach, as he is one win away from tying Jesse Raymond’s current benchmark of 17 wins.
Lincs blank Kings 6-0
The Lincolns continued their march towards clinching the top spot in the Western Conference 24 hours later when they scored a dominant 6-0 victory over the Komoka Kings.
With the Kings being eliminated from playoff contention, there was potential for the Lincolns to not be as focused as they could be, for which there was precedent when they picked up an imperfect 3-1 win over Komoka on Jan. 25. According to Bradley, however, it was one of the team’s assistant coaches who brought a fresh perspective to the team’s preparations, which ultimately helped the Lincolns turn in a strong showing.
“It’s hard to get motivated for a game like this sometimes,” Bradley said. “Especially 40 games into the season, when you’re coming off a game against a potential playoff opponent in front of 800 or 900 fans, and now facing a team trying to create an identity as an organization, but I thought we did a really good job. They worked hard, they executed what they needed to and they didn’t cheat themselves and our structure.
“Mike (Siddall) did a really good job with the pregame meeting and he deserves a lot of credit. Where I’m typically more focused on our pre-scout of the opponent and tactics, Mike spotted a different way to go about it in terms of emphasizing the habits we have heading into the playoffs. He did a great job getting the guys to understand that wins are nice, but at this point, it’s more important to make sure your game is in order and you’ve got the right habits for the post-season.”
Bradley further explained the crux of the Siddall-led pregame meeting.
“It came back to details of our game, like having quick line changes, playing as a five-man unit, having lower lateral support, not turning pucks over and the chemistry between our defencemen and the forward supporting them when they pinch. Those aren’t necessarily tactical, but they can create momentum.
“Our bench has really good camaraderie,” added Bradley. “Our guys don’t just cheer for a goal or a big hit; they will give props to one another for a quick line change. Even a relatively small detail like a good, quick line change can energize the bench.”
It took until the 17:23 mark of the first frame for the Lincolns to register the first goal of the night, a shorthanded goal by Spagnolo, who roofed the puck over Kings’ goalie Zack Irvin after a sharp setup pass by Blake Elzinga.
With 25 seconds left in the opening period, Spagnolo buried his second of the game, this time following a nifty drive into the Kings’ end by Jaden Lee, who lured all the attention to one side of the ice before feeding the puck to Spagnolo, who had an open net to shoot at.
The two shorthanded goals put Spagnolo tied with Lee at five on the season. The “Milton Magicians” are both tied for the most shorthanded goals in a single season in Lincs’ history.
As if Spagnolo’s second goal wasn’t pretty enough, a tic-tac-toe passing play from Owen Voortman to Lee to Spagnolo resulted in the Lincs’ captain completing the hat-trick and putting St. Marys up by three just two minutes and 47 seconds into the second period.
Seven minutes later, Noah VandenBrink ended a 16-game goal drought when he snapped a quick shot by Irvin to extend the Lincolns’ lead to 4-0. Quinn Gavin-White picked up one of two assists he recorded in the game, while Ethan Coups made it four straight games with a point. During the Lincolns’ 15-game heater, Coups has displayed an increasingly fluid ability to make plays with the puck in the offensive zone and has also significantly cut down on the amount of penalty minutes he’s been taking as of late while remaining a physical presence in every game.
“Ethan (Coups) deserves a ton of recognition for all that he does for us,” said Bradley. “He is a big part of the story of this generation of the Lincolns. He and I have a great relationship, and he is a bit old-school in terms of how I can communicate with him if he makes a mistake. He’s an unbelievable player for us and he’s a protector of our guys. He’s so loved by his teammates and it’s because they know he cares about them and will fiercely protect them.”
Much of the last 20 minutes was spent in the Kings’ zone as the Lincolns expertly shut down the game, outshooting Komoka 14-3 in the final period and increasing their lead to 6-0 with goals from Elzinga and MacQueen-Spence, the latter of whom now has goals in four consecutive games and points in five straight.
Colby Booth-Housego stopped all 18 Komoka shots to earn his fifth shutout of the season, and in doing so, inched closer to history. The current record for most shutouts in a single season by a Lincolns goaltender is six, which Brian Hince pulled off in 2005-2006.
Additionally, Booth-Housego currently has seven shutouts in his GOJHL career, with the Lincolns’ franchise record for most shutouts being eight, also held by Hince.
The Lincolns’ next game sees them hosting the Elmira Sugar Kings on Feb. 14 before they visit the St. Thomas Stars for a Family Day afternoon contest.
