Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sailors Lose To Hawks in Western Jr. C

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Goderich
by Peter Jackson    

The Goderich Sailors' suddenly potent power-play has made itself evident again in a 7-5 Western Junior C Hockey League loss to Walkerton at MRC.

Three of Goderich's goals came on the man-advantage which kept them very much in Saturday night's contest against the first-place Hawks.

Sailors' Head-Coach Todd Goetz says it has taken a while but the time invested with the power-play unit is proving to be worthwhile.

Goetz says he knew there were certain fundamental skills that needed to be worked on when he first joined the team 11 months ago and the work has translated into a cohesive five-man unit that will return in-tact next season.

Brendan Thomson opened the Sailors' scoring from Tom Bedour with the extra man at 10:23 of the first period to tie the score 1-1.

Another tying goal came at even strength with 28 seconds left in the opening frame as Brett Austin and Thomson fed Ben Gowing.

Goderich trailed 4-3 through 40 minutes of play with Austin getting the set-up from Brent DeBruyn and Bedour with 12:15 left in the scond.

The Sailors' power-play went to work twice in the third with Brett McGuinness's marker from Brent Alton and Tyler Million at 4:18, then Ben Sloetjes converted a McGuinness pass with the extra man at 16:27.

Goetz says the team is truly starting to believe in itself.

He says every player has responded to the extra opportunities to improve his game and even though the Sailors have few wins to show for their effort they fight hard every night.

Goetz says one aspect to any team's success is winning face-offs which is starting to go the Sailors' way.

Goetz says skill on face-offs is part of a centre's craft and the Sailors were dominant in that aspect of the game.

He says a clean face-off win was one factor in Sloetjes' power-play goal in the third period.

The Sailors end the regular-season with games in Mount Forest next Friday and in Hanover next Saturday.

Next home game for the Sailors will be Game Three of the opening playoff round best-of-seven on February 20th at MRC -- the team they'll face has yet to be determined.