Flyers double stars, top Sarnia

By C. Scott Holland

LEAMINGTON — If one had glanced at the standings prior to last Thursday night’s home contest versus the St. Thomas Stars, a sense of Leamington overwhelming the last-place team might have been had.

But such was not the case, as the two youngest teams in the West Conference battled hard for two periods.

A three-goal splurge by Leamington early in the third was the ultimate difference as they won 4-2.

On Friday, they edged the Stars 2-1 in St. Thomas and then at home on Sunday afternoon, rolled over the Sarnia Legionnaires 6-1.

End-to-end action was prevalent on Thursday and Friday over the two contests and the Stars looked nothing like a 9th place team. The Stars came out strong, played hard, battled for pucks and outshot the Flyers. Both clubs played a clean game, taking two minors each.

The contest was also the first for new Flyers’ player Blake McNally (#19), who is 6’2”, 198 lbs. and hails from Blind River and replaces Kale Couvillon (#4) on the Flyers roster. Couvillon was recently released.

Head coach Dale Mitchell said after Thursday’s contest, “We played a satisfactory hockey game. We came out a bit flat and we didn’t execute on our two power-plays early. That gave them some confidence.”

In a pre-game ceremony honoring the Flyers’ overagers from the 2019-20 season, Assitant General Manager Matt Dumouchelle (left) and GM Justin Solcz (right) present Dylan Weston (second from left) and Thomas Michaud with their Flyers’ jerseys. Not at the ceremony was grad Joshua Maine who is playing hockey in the US.

Scott Holland photo

“After they scored it lit a fire under us and we turned it up from there,” Mitchell added. “We talked in the second intermission and we knew we were better than our performance and the guys came out firing. We scored three quick ones and didn’t look back from there.”

The Stars opened the scoring near the midway point of the second when Maddox Amaral’s shot bounded off a goal post and behind Flyers’ starter Ryan Polidori. The Flyers knotted the game at 16:30 when Andrew Uturo and Wyatt O’Neil hooked passes to Gavin Grundner, who blasted a left lane shot past Stars’ starter Tyler Roberts.

Having missed some golden opportunities during the first two frames, the Flyers came out in the third with an attack that went right to the Stars’ doorstep. Gabe Piccolo’s attempt was halted by Roberts but Andrew Uturo closed in on Roberts and shoveled the puck into the net to spot the Flyers a lead at 1:06. From the ensuing faceoff, Grundner and O’Neil connected with Uturo who beat Roberts 17 seconds later.

The Flyers’ sustained an offensive attack for several minutes and during a two-on-one break at 3:41 Sylvain Lessard drove down the right side and unleashed a rocket shot past Roberts.

The Stars managed one more goal, but watched the Flyers shut them down from there.

In the return match at St. Thomas on Friday night, fans saw a wide-open contest with 90 total shots fired by the two teams. It ended as a 2-1 regulation victory for the Flyers. Grundner and Ryan MacPherson scored early for a 2-0 lead. Netminder Boe Piroski had his shutout bid broken in the third when the Stars notched a powerplay goal.

On Sunday the Flyers took a 1-0 lead in the first on Sylvain Lessard’s tally and made it 4-1 in the second as Ryan MacPherson, Wyatt O’Neil and Connor MacPherson all notched goals. Sarnia broke starter Polidori’s shutout at 16:20. Ryan MacPherson potted his second of the game early in the third and Ryan Blackburn added one tally. Polidori — who halted 23 — raised his record to 6-1, along with a 2.00 GAA, Schedule: Thurs. Oct. 28 – Strathroy @ Leamington 7:10 pm.