Chase McDougall lays a hit on Sarnia Legionnaires’ forward Jimmy Monks during the St. Marys Lincolns’ 5-2 win in Sarnia on Nov. 28. Photo credit: McGinny Photography
By Spencer Seymour
The St. Marys Lincolns earned three of four points with a win over the Sarnia Legionnaires on Nov. 28, followed by an overtime loss to the London Nationals on Nov. 29.
Coming off their most disappointing performance of the season in Elmira on Nov. 24, the Lincolns travelled to Sarnia and came away with a 5-2 win over the Legionnaires. While the team looked far more engaged, St. Marys struggled to execute their gameplan as well as they would have wanted to in the first 20 minutes, yet still outshot Sarnia 16-5.
Head coach Jeff Bradley told the Independent he was pleased with the team’s adaptability which allowed them to find more success in the final 40 minutes.
“We had a rough start, especially giving up odd-man rushes, but we pulled our defencemen back, and after that, I don’t think we gave up another odd-man rush,” said Bradley. “I thought they adjusted well after the first and we carried the play. We had a bit of a tough time scoring, but we created plenty of scoring chances, and we did what we had to do to get the job done.”
The only goal of the opening period came seven minutes and 50 seconds into the game when Carter Fogarty got in tight in front of the Lincolns’ crease and roofed a quick shot by goaltender Nico Armellin, who finished the game with 20 saves and the win.
The game also marked the Lincolns’ debut for forward Quinn Gavin-White, who was acquired from the St. Thomas Stars in exchange for Dylan Searles and Tanner Ducharme. Gavin-White has six goals and 11 points in 21 games with the Stars this year, and last season, in 49 games with St. Thomas, recorded 13 goals and 38 points.
General Manager Pat Powers spoke on the acquisition, crediting the 19-year-old for his versatility and intelligence.
“Quinn adds a veteran presence with a very high hockey IQ,” Powers explained. “With the skills he has, Quinn increases our roster depth. He is a guy that can move up and down our lineup when different needs arise. He makes others around him better.”
As the Lincolns revved up in the second, they finally tied the game at one apiece with a shorthanded goal by Owen Voortman at the 13:21 mark of the second. The lone assist went to Ryan Hodkinson.
Almost exactly four minutes later, Voortman potted his second goal of the game when Jaden Lee sent the puck through the slot with Voortman chopping it over Sarnia netminder Connor Davis. Ethan Coups also picked up an assist on the goal. Before the period was done, Chase MacQueen-Spence rocketed a powerplay goal home with eight seconds left in the frame after taking the puck out of a net-front scramble to put St. Marys up 3-1. Voortman and Luca Spagnolo earned the assists.
In the third, Jaxon Priddle cut the Lincolns’ lead back to one with a powerplay marker of his own. With one minute and eight seconds left in the game, MacQueen-Spence posted his second of the night with assists going to Coups and Ryder Livermore. In the final minute, Chase McDougall hit an empty net to ice the game and pocket his first GOJHL goal.
Bradley noted that McDougall’s strong work ethic and grittiness easily could have earned him his first goal long before the game in Sarnia, and added that his presence on the ice in the final minute is indicative of the strong season McDougall has had.
“I talked to Chase after the game and I think he probably would have wanted his first goal to not be an empty-netter, but my view on that was you have to be on the ice in that situation to get the empty-net goal. Chase is a 16-year-old who we trusted to be on the ice with two minutes left to protect a lead. If Chase doesn’t play the way he has this season, he doesn’t get the opportunity to play in that situation, so I think it reflects the trust he has earned.”
Bradley added that McDougall’s line, filled out by Tyler Oletic and Jacob McLellan, were “far and away” the team’s best line in Sarnia.
“They played heavy, and I think that mix of Tyler, Chase, and Jacob is a perfect mix of players. Tyler has much more skill than people might assume he has. He makes really good plays in tight and is great on the cycle. He seems to fit really nicely with Chase and Jacob. The three of them can really wear down the other team.”
Great start fizzles out as Lincs fall in OT
The McDougall, Oletic, and McLellan trio once again turned in a strong game 24 hours later and helped the Lincolns correct one of their major issues against the Legionnaires; their first period.
“Coming in, the big focus for us was our start,” Bradley began. “I thought we did a good job at that. In the first and second periods, the first especially, I thought we were very good. We challenged Chase, Tyler, and Jacob to go out and set the tone, and they did that. They got us off on the right foot, and everybody seemed to follow suit.
“Tyler fills a role that we’ve needed for a while. One of the things that hurt us in the playoffs over the last couple of years was the absence of a really solid power forward who can create momentum and intimidate the other team. Chase complements him really well, and being on that line as a young player creates an even more important role for him. Then, you mix in the veteran leadership and skill that Jacob has, and it establishes that line as one that can get guys excited and into the game.”
Unlike the night before, the Lincolns got the game’s first goal against the Nationals when Cohen Bidgood banged home a one-timer on a powerplay to put the Lincolns up 1-0.
In the second frame, after a defensive miscue led to a two-on-one for the Nationals on which Joshua Lepain blasted past Colby Booth-Housego, the Lincolns saw McDougall leave the game due to injury, followed by Bidgood exiting after having a fight with Luke McSorley.
McSorley not only instigated the fight, but also committed an appalling action in the leadup to the faceoff that preceded the fight when McSorley – a hockey player wearing skates, remember – attempted to stomp on the leg of Bidgood.
The Lincolns got a seven-minute powerplay out of the incident, and Spagnolo tallied his 15th of the year on the man advantage.
The Lincolns began to struggle in the third, punctuated by Lepain’s second of the game tying the game at 2-2, which ultimately sent the game to overtime.
In the extra frame, despite controlling much of the play, the Lincolns couldn’t find the game-winner. After Aydan Doyle was stopped on a breakaway, David Brown found the back of the net to give London the 3-2 victory.
“I thought we carried the play in overtime, but we definitely didn’t have a great third period,” noted Bradley. “We did lose Cohen [Bidgood] and Chase [McDougall], but we also lost our composure a bit, not in the sense of our discipline, but more regarding puck management. We started panicking with the puck.”
Bradley, who often calls the regular season a 50-game process to “get our game in order,” explained the team’s next step after a mostly good game ending in disappointing fashion.
“You have to take the positives out of a game like that. You can’t let a loss humble you. It’s never going to go all well, so you can’t let things humble you like that. At this point in the season, it’s about problem-solving. You’re trying to solve problems throughout the year, and that’s what we’re doing. We had a problem a couple of weeks ago with our puck support and decision-making with the puck, and we worked through that.
“We had a problem against Elmira with our physicality, and we addressed that,” Bradley continued. “In our game against Sarnia, we had a problem with our controlled breakout and chemistry between our forwards and defencemen, as well as our start to the game, and we cleaned those up against London. This is the time of the year you want to be solving problems and it’s a good thing that we have been able to identify and address each problem quickly.”
The Lincolns finished the month of November with a 5-4-1 record. They have five games in December, including their next two games on Dec. 6 against the London Nationals and Dec. 7 against the Ayr Centennials. Both games are being played in Caledonia at the GOJHL Showcase tournament.
Colby Booth-Housego withstands a net-front scramble during the St. Marys Lincolns’ game against the London Nationals on Nov. 29. Photo credit: McGinny Photography
