By Spencer Seymour
The St. Marys Lincolns picked up three wins in four days to extend their winning streak to 13 straight games and in doing so, guaranteed themselves a playoff spot.
After sweeping a home-and-home series against the LaSalle Vipers, the Lincolns avenged a disappointing loss at the hands of the Elmira Sugar Kings earlier in the season. Their first victory against the Vipers, a 7-3 road win on Jan. 29, made St. Marys the first team to clinch their place in the post-season.
Lincs’ general manager Pat Powers, who filled in behind the bench due to head coach Jeff Bradley being unable to attend the game in LaSalle as a result of weather-induced travel issues, told the Independent the team played a “really sound game” for the majority of the night on Jan. 29.
“For two-thirds of the game, I would say there were glimpses of us playing a playoff style,” said Powers. “When we’re on our game, it’s tough for teams to defend us, and it’s also tough to get inside on us in our zone. We got a bit loose later on when the score started getting a little bit lopsided, but overall, the guys showed the work ethic and some of the structure that we want to play with.”
St. Marys opened the scoring just two minutes and 12 seconds in when a point shot by defenceman Ian Gedney deflected off of a Vipers’ player before hitting the back of the net. Gedney added an assist later in the game, and Powers credited Gedney along with rugged defensive stalwart Ethan Coups for leading the way defensively.
“Ethan (Coups) and Ian (Gedney) both had really good games for us on the blueline. With Ethan, he has been a very consistent performer over the last few games, and I thought he continued playing the way we need him to. As for Ian, obviously, it was nice that he was able to put a couple of points on the board. He made good plays with the puck in the defensive zone. He was getting pucks up to the wingers and making plays in the offensive zone really well.”
A little under four-and-a-half minutes later, the Vipers tied the game at 1-1 when Noah Caswell went on an end-to-end rush before beating Nico Armellin, who finished the game with 20 saves to backstop the Lincolns to the win.
Armellin, along with forward Cohen Bidgood, represented the Lincolns on Team GOJHL that competed in the McPherson Tournament in Aurora, Ont. from Jan. 30-Feb. 2.
The Lincolns retook the lead when Kyle Morey roofed his third goal since rejoining the Lincolns at the trade deadline on a third opportunity after Vipers’ netminder Jake Windbiel denied two scoring chances right around the crease. Jaden Lee netted his 22nd of the season, followed by the ninth of the campaign by Ryan Cornfield, both in the final two minutes of the opening period, to take a 4-1 lead into the intermission.
Hoping to spark the rest of the team, LaSalle pulled Windbiel after the first period, replacing him with Logan Phillips. However, Ryan Hodkinson scored just three minutes and nine seconds into the second frame. Just over six minutes later, Jak Thiessen got the Vipers back within one, but in under a minute, the Lincolns answered with the second goal of the game by Cornfield, assisted by linemates Bidgood and Hodkinson.
Powers praised the trio of Bidgood, Cornfield, and Hodkinson for their strong performance, all of whom finished with multi-point efforts.
“That line had some really nice passing plays,” remarked Powers. “There were some shifts where you could see they were slowing the game down, which allowed them to make some really good plays and decisions, and that’s what guys with high hockey IQs do.”
Owen Voortman registered his 23rd of the year before Alec Stewart scored for LaSalle, sending the game into the third with St. Marys up 7-3, which eventually held up as the final score.
Lincs earn dominant shutout over Vipers to close home-and-home
As if their strong game on Jan. 29 wasn’t impressive enough, the Lincolns took their play to another level on Jan. 31 in the second half of the home-and-home series and picked up a 7-0 rout of the Vipers.
Coach Bradley was back behind the bench and called it one of his team’s most complete efforts of the season.
“We were utterly outstanding,” Bradley raved. “I thought we were pretty well perfect, to be honest. That was a game that had a little bit of everything and we were good at all of it. We were physical. We were responsible in every area of the ice. Our forechecking was on point. We obviously scored a bunch. Our special teams were really good. You put all of that together, and it’s really the perfect game.”
It took until the 19:42 mark of the first period for the game’s first goal, a powerplay tally by Luca Spagnolo, which extended his point streak to 20 games.
With the Vipers getting shutout, the goal held up as the game-winner, Spagnolo’s eighth of the season, a new Lincolns’ all-time record for game-winning goals in one season.
Voortman and Lee picked up the helpers on the goal, the latter of whom made it 11 straight games with a point, which tied for the second-longest point streak in the GOJHL this season, only behind his linemate Spagnolo’s 20-game point streak.
Spagnolo scored his second of the night just over eight-and-a-half minutes into the second with a shorthanded marker. After a highlight reel save by Colby Booth-Housego, who finished with 18 saves in his shutout bid, Cornfield potted his 11th of the year, assisted by Hodkinson and Blake Elzinga.
Before the end of the middle stanza, Chase MacQueen-Spence made it 4-0 on the powerplay with his 16th of the season. In the third, Elzinga and Lee found the back of the net, along with Quinn Gavin-White, whose goal was his first in a Lincolns’ jersey.
Bradley credited his team for withstanding an intense physical pressure by the Vipers.
“LaSalle came in with a clear plan to frustrate our top players and try to take them off their game, but our guys stayed focused on the goal and preserved through everything thrown at them. If they went after one of our top guys, our whole team responded. We had each other’s backs, and we executed our gameplan close to flawlessly. There wasn’t one or two guys carrying the rest of the team; everyone had a great night.”
The bench boss added that, with their playoff spot clinched, they are now focused on not resting on their laurels for the remainder of the year.
“They know they played a really great game. As a coaching staff, we’re trying to keep the players engaged, refining what we do, and adding new elements to our game. The level of competition we’re up against makes it easier to stay engaged, though. It isn’t hard to keep them focused since we're playing really good teams every night who are posing really big challenges for us.”
Lincs edge out Sugar Kings 3-2
With momentum from their two decisive wins over LaSalle, the Lincolns travelled to Elmira to take on the Sugar Kings looking to avenge a disappointing 4-2 loss back on Nov. 24, and on the backs of a stellar defensive effort, St. Marys came away with a 3-2 victory.
“It was a great road game against a truly worthy opponent,” Bradley commented. “We viewed that game as a big task, considering how we lost there early this year, and we know they are a really good home team. They have a really good power play, and it got a lot of opportunities, but our penalty kill showed out, and our guys stepped up when they needed to.”
Bradley added the entire back end, along with two of the team’s most reliable two-way forwards, played the most prominent roles in the win.
“All of our defencemen were fantastic. Elmira played a really strong game, and with the talent they have, shutting them down requires a great attention to detail. Our guys worked incredibly hard to limit the number of chances we gave up. I thought Ryan (Hodkinson) and Jacob (McLellan) were our two best players up front. They were physical, intelligent, and just gave us such consistently excellent minutes.”
Halfway through the first, Coups banged home his second of the season to put the Lincs ahead 1-0, a goal that remained the only one on the board until seven minutes and 40 seconds into the second period when Elzinga fired home his seventh of the year. Almost exactly six minutes later, a bouncing puck was blasted into the St. Marys net by Brett Warrilow.
Less than three minutes later, MacQueen-Spence restored the Lincolns’ two-goal lead on a set-up by Lincoln Moore to send St. Marys into the second intermission with a 3-1 advantage.
With just over six minutes left in regulation, Ryan Forwell cut the Lincolns’ lead to 3-2, but the Lincolns, led by Booth-Housego in goal, who ended the game with 29 saves, held off Elmira to secure their 13th straight victory.
Bradley further praised Booth-Housego and the rest of the Lincolns for their excellent defensive effort, which held the Sugar Kings’ dynamic duo of Luke Della Croce and Joey Martin to just one point between the two of them.
“The talent they have on the powerplay speaks for itself, and I don’t think we gave them much at all, and when we did, Colby (Booth-Housego) was right there to make the save. You look at the calibre of goalies we have; either one of them could be a starter anywhere in the league, but here they’re splitting time, and they’re both handling it well and shining every time they get the chance. This weekend, with Nico (Armellin) playing for Team GOJHL, we needed Colby to play back-to-back, and he delivered exactly what we needed.”
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