Game 3, Western Conference Championship Series
(2) Chatham Maroons 4
(1) St. Marys Lincolns 1
(CHA leads best-of-7 series 2-1)
“Complete game” gives Maroons series lead
Liam Campbell (7) scored the eventual game winner midway through the seconds period and Dylan Richter (9) scored a short handed goal 15 seconds into the third as Maroons (10-5) downed the Lincolns (9-6) to take the series lead in front of a crowd of 1109 at the Pyramid Recreation Centre. (game hilites)
Gannon Hunter (W, 10-5) made 27 saves for the Maroons, while Lincolns netminder Nico Armellin (L, 3-5) stopped 29 of 33 shots.
VIDEO: Goals from Campbell, Richter give Maroons series lead
Carter Chadwick (7) opened the scoring at 3:14 of the second period, ending the Maroons’ scoreless stretch in St. Marys at 100 minutes dating back to the third period of an 8-5 loss on March 7. Blake Elzinga (4) responded for the Lincolns 61 seconds later before Campbell scored the go ahead goal at 9:59 to give the Maroons a 2-1 lead. The Lincolns started the third on the power play when Richter stole the puck and scored on a breakaway to make it 3-1. Connor Hunt (4) scored on the power play with 3:28 left in the third to close the scoring.
Maroons GM/head coach was very pleased with his team’s all-around performance on the road. “I thought we played a complete game tonight. We used our speed and were able to make some plays. We talked about coming in and having a solid road game and I thought we did that tonight.”
While Lincolns head coach Jeff Bradley was understandably disappointed in his team’s overall effort, he’s confident the Lincolns will rebound. “It was a tough performance for us, but we have lots of guys in our room that have a lot of pride and want to achieve something special as a group. We know we have to perform better to achieve that I believe that we will.”
Hunt’s goal was on the power play as the Maroons were 1 for 5 with the man advantage. Chatham’s power play — which led the league in the regular season at 27.2% and had a success rate of 34% over the first two rounds of the playoffs — is now 2/15 (13.3%) in the series, The Lincolns were 0/3 on the power play, and are 2/8 (25.0%) with the man advantage in the series.
The Lincolns were held to 1 goal for the first time since a 2-1 loss to Strathroy on November 8.
Game 4 will take place Thursday night at Chatham Memorial Arena. Game time is 7:30pm.
The Eastern Conference Championship also resumed on Tuesday as the visiting #3 Fort Erie Meteors took a 2-1 series lead with a 5-1 win over the #1 St. Catharines Falcons. Click here for a full recap,
