Bryce Yetman scored twice as the Chatham Maroons beat the Rockets in Strathroy 5-3 Saturday night.
The Maroons have 27 points in the GOJHL Western Conference, good for sixth place. Strathroy is in eighth place with 16 points.
Grant Spence scored the lone goal of the opening period, at 7:02 on the power play.
Chatham then scored three straight in the second period. Dane Johnstone made the score 2-0 at 4:49, and within almost four minutes, Steven Fowler and Yetman followed suit. Greg Marks got the Rockets on the board with a power play goal at 13:48, but the score at the second intermission was 4-1 Maroons.
Maroons defenceman Dakota Bohn says a lot of players getting called back into the game helped the team advance to the 4-0 lead in the second half of the game.
"A lot of the guys on the bench were up and you know, once we got up by four, I guess we took it easy going to the third, which is tough but we can't give that up," says Bohn.
Strathroy goalie Zack Weir was pulled midway through the second period for backup Joshua Diamond. Together they had 29 saves in net.
Marks chipped away at the lead with another power play goal at 3:40 in the third period, and teammate Adrian Franklin brought the Rockets closer still just 18 seconds later. Yetman, though, scored his second of the game into an empty net with 28 seconds left in regulation.
Ryan Wagner had 41 saves out of 44 tries in goal for the Maroons.
The Maroons welcome the LaSalle Vipers to Memorial Arena Sunday night. Bohn says the team is gearing up to face off against the team.
"LaSalle is a tough team. We gotta battle all the way through. We can't give them anything. We need to get shots on them and the puck out quick. We need to get some goals," says Bohn.
The Rockets host the St. Thomas Stars next Saturday.