Game 1, Western Conference Championship Series
(2) Chatham Maroons 0
(1) St. Marys Lincolns 4
(SMY leads best-of-7 series 1-0)
League’s top defense shuts down league’s top offense and power play
On the ‘strength-vs-strength’ portion of the series scorecard, round 1 goes to the St. Marys Lincolns’ top-ranked defense versus the league’s highest scoring team, the Chatham Maroons.
In his fourth straight start, rookie netminder Nico Armellin (W, 3-3) made 27 saves — including 14 in the third period — for his first career playoff shutout as the Lincolns won the series opener in front of a crowd of 1225 at the Pyramid Recreation Centre.
Kyle Morey scored his 6th and 7th goals (video) of the playoffs, Luca Spagnolo scored his 4th and Cohen Bidgood scored his 4th into an empty net for the Lincolns, who were outshot 27-25. Chase MacQueen-Spence and Lincoln Moore each assisted on both of Morey’s goals.
VIDEO: Kyle Morey scores twice in Lincolns’ series opening win
Maroons netminder Gannon Hunter (L, 8-5) made 21 saves — including a penalty shot by by Owen Voortman midway thru the second period.
The Lincolns held the Maroons’ league-best power play unit (33.3%) scoreless in 6 opportunities — including a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes midway thru the second period. St. Marys was 1 for 3 with the man advantage.
Lincolns head coach Jeff Bradley was especially pleased with his team’s defensive performance, and particularly their penalty kill. “Certainly really happy with our performance. Chatham is a very dangerous team, and we did a good job minimizing their rush opportunities with good puck management and being on the right side of our man. Their powerplay was something that [assistant coach] Mike Herman has spent a lot of time on with our PK guys, and I thought they did an outstanding job tonight.”
Maroons GM/head coach also had praise for the Lincolns defensive performance. “I thought St. Marys did a good job limiting time and space tonight and capitalizing on our mistakes; but it’s a long series and we will be ready for game 2.”
The Maroons, who entered the game with a league-best 4.7 goals scored per game in the playoffs, suffered their first shutout in 50 playoffs games since a 5-0 loss to LaSalle in Game 5 of the 2020 Western Conference quarter-final. And it was their first time they were shutout in 105 games — regular season and playoffs combined — since a 2-0 loss in St. Catharines on Sep.23, 2023.
Game 2 will take place Sunday night at Chatham Memorial Arena. Game time is 7:00pm.
The Eastern Conference Championship Series gets underway Friday at 7:00pm when the #1 St. Catharines Falcons host the #3 Fort Erie Meteors at the Seymour-Hannah S.E.C. in St. Catharines.
