The shots were even, but the Chatham Maroons came ahead where it counted the most, in goals.
The Maroons and Leamington Flyers had 33 shots on goal each, but the Maroons eked out a 4-3 win over the Flyers Sunday night at Memorial Arena.
Chatham is now in second place in the GOJHL Western Conference standings with 20 points. The Flyers are right behind in third place with 17.
Maroons defenceman Matt Murray contributed a goal on the night, and he said he had been working diligently to find ways to score and contribute.
"At the beginning of the year I talked to the coaches," said Murray. "I think there's one thing I can help bring, a little bit of offence and stuff like that, but as long as we take care of our D-zone first, the offence will come too. So it's going good so far, so we're hoping to keep up that pace."
Dane Johnstone scored the only goal in the opening period for a 1-0 Chatham lead.
It wasn't until late in the middle frame that the Maroons doubled their advantage. Nolan Gardiner connected with 1:34 left in the period.
The scoring then began to waver between the two sides in the third frame. Leamington got on the board at 5:11 with a Dylan Weston goal, though Dakota Bohn got that goal back for the Maroons 47 seconds later. 40 seconds after that, though, the Flyers came back within one when Wyatt O'Neil scored. Murray put Chatham up 4-2 on a power play goal just past the midway point of the period, yet Leamington pulled within one again 33 seconds later on a Levi Tetrault tally.
Murray said he and his teammates only needed to stay focused during the back-and-forth scoring in that period.
"We talked about trying to lock it down and just play simple," said Murray. "We already had the lead so we didn't have to do anything too special. Throughout the whole game Harry (goalie Adam Harris) kept us in pretty good. He made some big saves and he's definitely part of the reason we won tonight."
Harris had 33 shots fired at him. He stopped 30. Zach Borgiel had 29 saves in net for the Flyers.
The Flyers host the St. Marys Lincolns on Thursday night. The Maroons are off until next Sunday night, when they host the Strathroy Rockets.