The Chatham Maroons scored twice in the third period, but it was the St. Thomas Stars who emerged victorious.
The Stars took a 3-2 win over the Maroons Sunday evening at Chatham Memorial Arena.
St. Thomas is now third in the GOJHL Western Conference standings with 22 points. The Maroons are tied for fifth with the LaSalle Vipers for 19 points each.
There was no goal-scoring in the first period, but the penalty boxes were busy. Six players from both teams were assessed penalties, the more severe from the Maroons' Dakota Bohn, who earned a game misconduct for head contact. St. Thomas' Jake Rendall earned a ten-minute misconduct for the same offence earlier in the period.
Maroons head coach Ron Horvat says the early penalty trouble didn't help matters.
"Right off the bat when we took those penalties, that's a killer on a team," says Horvat. "It takes a long time after everybody's on the kill, and you get in that mindset and play that defensive game and along with those penalties, it took a long time to come back."
The Stars scored their first two goals in the second period. Matt Couto scored the first on the power play and unassisted. Mason Millman doubled the Stars' lead later in the frame.
Adam Keyes made the score 3-0 St. Thomas when he scored an unassisted goal at 6:32 in the third period. Chatham then tried to mount a comeback with back-to-back goals, one from Jordan Frasca, the other from Bryce Yetman within the final minute of regulation.
Next up for the Maroons are the LaSalle Vipers. Horvat says they will need to play with more zip against them.
"We kind of went through the motions out there a little bit, we weren't committed to the plays," says Horvat. "We were skating but there was more to it than that, we needed to grind it out a little more and I think we need to do that against LaSalle."
Puck drop Wednesday night is scheduled for 7pm. All of the action can be heard on CFCO Country 92.9FM/AM 630.