Vipers defeat Legionnaires

by Mitchell Brandner

The LaSalle Vipers played the Sarnia Legionnaires at the Vollmer Complex Oct. 3 in a penalty-filled affair which saw the Vipers win 5-3.

Sarnia took an early lead on their first shot of the game. Legionnaires forward Jason Teschke intercepted a pass and slid the puck over to Josh Kestner who beat Vipers goalie Taylor Speed. The Vipers had a number of quality chances in the first period but couldn’t capitalize.

LaSalle exploded in the second period thanks in large part to their power play, which scored five times on 14 man-advantage opportunities in the game. Korey Morgan got the ball rolling when he tipped Dylan Denomme’s point shot past Sarnia goalie Sean Parker on the power play at 3:34 of the period.

Almost 10 minutes later Dylan Seguin gave the Vipers the lead with their second power play goal of the game. He converted on a pass from Nathan Savage, who found Seguin wide open in the slot. LaSalle doubled their lead at 16:01 of the second period when Scott Prier’s point shot found a way through, beating Parker on his glove side.

Denomme said the power play had been struggling so it was important to have some success with the man-advantage.

“We’ve been struggling earlier in the season. Actually, terribly,” Denomme said. “We’ve been working on it a lot. It was a good game for us tonight.”

The parade to the box continued in the third period and Morgan capitalized on another power play 1:00 into the frame. The goal was similar to his first as he tipped another Denomme point shot past the Sarnia goaltender. Sarnia got the lead back down to two when Davis Boyer beat Speed with a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle. Sarnia would not come any closer, however, as LaSalle’s Nathan Savage added yet another power play marker and Legionnaires forward Jeff Bauer rounded out the scoring with a short-handed tally. The teams combined for 48 minutes in penalties plus a game misconduct to LaSalle’s Blake Jones for checking from behind.

Vipers head coach Ryan Donally said the special teams were the main reason they won the game.

“If you look at any level of hockey if the special teams are a plus or even you have a chance to win,” said Donally. “We scored five power play goals tonight and allowed one shorthanded (goal). If we can put up those kind of numbers there’s very few games we’re going to lose.”

The LaSalle Vipers are back in action Oct. 6 when they travel to Fort Erie, Ont. to take on the Meteors.
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