Lincs sweep interconference games as Bradley hits 100 wins

Luca Spagnolo brings the crowd to their feet after scoring his second of two goals on Nov. 1 against the Caledonia Corvairs. As of the Independent’s press time, Spagnolo leads the entire GOJHL in multi-goal games with four. Photo credit: McGinny Photography

The St. Marys Lincolns kept their winning ways going with a pair of victories over the Caledonia Corvairs and Welland Jr. Canadians, and in doing so, helped their head coach Jeff Bradley hit an impressive milestone.  Bradley, coming up on just the third anniversary of assuming the position, won his 100th game as Lincs’ bench boss in their 5-0 shutout over Welland on Nov. 3. Bradley called it a “special” night in his coaching career.

“It’s amazing how fast time flies,” remarked Bradley. “It’s right around a week short of three years since I was hired, so it’s pretty cool. To me, being able to hit 100 wins already just shows how fast this organization has moved in a positive direction and all the good things it has going for it, from the President, to the GM, the Board and volunteers, and the fan support. The whole package is outstanding.”

To give Bradley the chance to hit 100 career wins in Welland, the Lincolns had to withstand the hard-hitting Corvairs from Caledonia, who came out of the gates strongly, outshooting St. Marys 14-7 in the first period. However, Colby Booth-Housego shut the door, which, according to the head coach, allowed the Lincolns to settle into the game and the Corvairs’ highly physical style.

“That is a team that traditionally is a top team in their conference and I’m sure they came in with a point to prove, and they put us on our heels a little bit in the first period. But still, I thought in that first period, even though we weren’t the ones pushing the pace, we weren’t really giving up any high-danger scoring chances. A lot was from outside, and thankfully, Colby held us in the game until we got our footing underneath us in the second and third, when I thought we played exactly how we strive to.”

Bradley elaborated on his feelings about the opening frame, noting they were still executing the fundamentals of their gameplan well, even as the Corvairs got control of the game early on. “I don’t think it’s that we played all that poorly. We aren’t necessarily the same type of team as Caledonia. We talk a lot about defending responsibly, whereas they are a big, physical team, so we had to adjust a bit to what they were throwing at us. It’s not that we aren’t a physical, hard-nosed team; we certainly have those elements. It’s tough to be at your absolute best in every way for 60 minutes every night, and in this case, it took us a period to fully acclimate to that part of the game.

“We were still taking care of what we needed to,” Bradley added. “We were outshot and they had more puck possession in the first, but we still managed to get pucks out when we needed to, dump pucks in when we needed to, and take away the slot chances. We stayed disciplined for the most part, and we got saves when we needed them. We have plenty of guys who know how to weather the storm.”

In the second period, the Lincs evened the game out and got rewarded when Luca Spagnolo snapped a four-game scoring slump with his ninth of the season, set up by Jacob McLellan. Julian Stubgen also picked up an assist. Just over five minutes later, Spagnolo tapped in a one-timer fed to him by Jaden Lee to score his second of the period and give the Lincolns a 2-0 lead. The pair of tallies gave Spagnolo four multi-goal games so far this season, which, as of the Independent’s press time, leads the entire GOJHL.

Three minutes and 35 seconds later, a new-look line for the Lincolns extended the lead to three when a three-way passing play ended in the sixth goal of the year for Owen Voortman. Newly-minted linemates Ryan Hodkinson, who was returning from an injury, and Chase MacQueen-Spence assisted on the goal.  Caledonia finally got on the board five minutes and 11 seconds into the third when Brody Leet jammed the puck over the goal line during a chaotic net-front scramble. St. Marys held the Corvairs off for the remainder of the night, however, while Noah VandenBrink iced the game with an empty netter with just 63 seconds left in the game.

Bradley credited his entire group for their well-rounded performance. “The whole team was really good. I thought that it was a full team effort. We rolled four lines and everyone was doing what we needed them to do. We tried out new penalty killers. The only things that were the same were the powerplay units. But all the guys that have practiced killing penalties got the chance to do it for us.”  Much of the game saw a high level of physicality and chippiness, which the bench boss felt the Lincolns navigated well.

“They understood what the goal of the game was; get two points,” Bradley told the Independent. “It’s not to show who’s a tougher team. The goal is always to win. You see moments in the game where someone receives a questionable hit, or someone is getting punched in the face, and we stand up for ourselves but don’t want to take it over the line. That’s the tightrope we’re always trying to balance, and for the most part, I thought we did that well.”

Youth plays starring role in 5-0 shutout in Welland

Some of the youngest Lincolns took centre stage when the team travelled to Welland on Nov. 3 and blanked the Jr. Canadians 5-0. Rookie goaltender Nico Armellin made 24 saves to earn his second shutout of the season, while first-year defenceman Hayden Barch scored a pair of goals, including the icebreaker just 26 seconds into the first period.

“Seeing Hayden get a couple of goals was amazing,” raved Bradley. “He is such a fantastic player. He works really hard, whether it’s a game or a practice. He pays attention to all the details. He’s very thoughtful in the way he prepares for and executes in games and practices.” Assisting on Barch’s first of the night were fellow rookies Chase McDougall and Dylan Searles, who, along with linemate Tanner Ducharme, were praised by coach Bradley for providing a much-needed spark to the rest of the team.

“There wasn’t the same energy in the building that we’re used to in St. Marys so one of the things we talked about was generating our own atmosphere and momentum, which is why we started the line of Chase, Tanner, and Dylan. We knew they would get in hard on the forecheck and set the tone and put Welland on their heels. They did exactly what we wanted them to and they got rewarded for it.

“That whole line, whether it’s been Chase, Dylan, and Tanner, or Chase, Dylan, and Zander, they’ve played the same way,” continued Bradley. “They’ve played some really good hockey, no matter what configuration we’ve used. They’re responsible, they’re physical, and they do what we ask them to, and do it really well.”

Although the Lincs’ performance wasn’t quite a masterpiece at times, Bradley felt the game as a whole was similar to wading through muddy waters, and thus, the end result left him content. “It’s a tough one to expect a perfect performance in. It’s a long bus trip, we’re two-and-a-half hours from home, and we got there a little bit later than we would have wanted. In a situation like that, you’re just hoping to get the two points and have things go as smoothly as they can. They did what they needed to do and that’s all you can ask from them. We’re happy to take the two points and move on to the next one.”

Bradley also explained how the Lincs went into the game with the intention of doing what their Friday night opponent had done to them 48 hours previously. “You try to take some things away from teams that you play, and if you look at our game against Caledonia, they came into our rink and put us on our heels right away, which forced us to ramp up our intensity and emotion. It’s obviously not the same atmosphere in Welland as we have in St. Marys, but the goal was to do what Caledonia did in our rink. I’m not sure we fully accomplished that in the first period, but we did score first, and we heavily outchanced Welland, so to me, it’s at least a decent place to build from.”

In the second period, MacQueen-Spence scored his fifth of the year, with assists going to Hodkinson and Rowan Reid. The goal gave MacQueen-Spence points in 10 of his last 11 games. It also gave Hodkinson points in seven of his last eight, with the only exception being the Oct. 18 home game against Stratford in which Hodkinson exited during the first period due to injury.

With just six seconds left in the middle period, less than a minute into a double-minor slew-footing penalty assessed to Welland, Ryan Cornfield blasted a loose puck into a yawning net for his sixth of the year. Hodkinson and VandenBrink picked up the helpers.  With the Lincs’ getting the goal on a powerplay, they now have at least one powerplay goal in 13 of 15 games this season.  Barch and MacQueen-Spence each added their second goal of the game in the third, with lone assists on each goal going to Cornfield and VandenBrink.

VandenBrink heads into the Lincolns’ next game on Nov. 8 against the Strathroy Rockets on a nine-game point streak and with points in all but one of his 13 games this season. After this Friday’s game against Strathroy, the Lincolns aren’t back at the PRC until Nov. 29 as they play six straight games on the road, a stretch that includes trips to LaSalle, St. Thomas, Elmira, and Sarnia, as well as two consecutive visits to Listowel for rematches of the 2024 Sutherland Cup Finals against the Cyclones.