The Sarnia Legionnaires Beat Leamington 4-3 in OT - March 7/17 (Blackburnnews.com Photo By Jake Jeffrey)The Sarnia Legionnaires Beat Leamington 4-3 in OT - March 7/17 (Blackburnnews.com Photo By Jake Jeffrey)
Sarnia

Legionnaires Top Stars For First Home Win

The Sarnia Legionnaires (2-2-0-1) picked up their first home win of the GOJHL hockey season Thursday night, defeating the St. Thomas Stars (1-3-0-0) 5-3 at the Brock St. Barn.

Joey Zappa and Joel Pavey led the Sarnia offence with a goal and two assists each. Jake Vince scored and added a helper, Jon Sanderson and Zach Vanderwal rounded out the Sarnia scoring.

St. Thomas forward Adam Keyes scored his first of three goals on the night just 56 seconds into the first period. The Legionnaires led 2-1 after one period, and the game was tied 2-2 after two.

Zappa's powerplay goal pulled Sarnia ahead 3-2 early in the third. Keyes completed the hat-trick to tie the game shortly after but goals from Pavey and Sanderson sealed the win for Sarnia.

Legionnaires Head Coach Mark Davis says he'll take the win, even though it wasn't pretty.

"We had them on the ropes, then all of a sudden we're taking penalties, then we get back into it and score and then we make some bad mistakes," says Davis.

"But, we have a lot of young guys in that room. You can see it coming, it's going to take a while for us. There were a lot of things that I liked. I thought Pavey, Vince, and Sanderson was the best line tonight, I thought they were outstanding. Coffin made some big saves and he deserved the victory tonight."

Sarnia native Brock Perry played well in his first game of the season for the Legionnaires, picking up an assist. He spent last season with the OHL's Sarnia Sting and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada of the QMJHL. Defenceman Matt Stoia had a pair of assists for his first two GOJHL points.

Legionnaires goalie Blair Coffin made 25 saves on 28 shots against, while the Stars' Anthony Hurtubise stopped 24 of 29 Sarnia chances.

The Legionnaires return to action on Saturday night in Komoka, and then travel to St. Thomas on Sunday for a rematch with the Stars. Strathroy visits the Brock St. Barn next Thursday night on CHOK.

 

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