The Chatham Maroons gave themselves a sizeable lead and held it to even up their playoff series.
The Maroons beat the LaSalle Vipers 4-2 Sunday night at Memorial Arena, evening up their junior-B first round playoff series at two wins apiece.
Dakota Bohn, who scored a goal and an assist, says he likes the momentum the Maroons have and they're anxious to press on.
"We just got to focus and push hard," says Bohn. "We want to win every game we can. We want a break, so we're trying to win these next two straight."
Bohn says part of his team's game plan over the last two games has been to get their shots on LaSalle's goaltender, Dershahn Stewart.
"It's been a tough couple of games but we bounced back and got some lucky shots on net," says Bohn. "We got some screens and a couple of lucky bounces. That's all we needed."
Eric Kirby scored at 2:51 of the opening period to put the Vipers on the board first. The Maroons responded with back-to-back goals for a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. Dawson Garcia scored the equalizer, followed later by the go-ahead goal from Bohn. Both Chatham goals were on the power play.
The Maroons extended their lead in the middle period. Bryce Yetman lit the lamp at 12:40. Chatham was aggressive against the LaSalle net, outshooting the Vipers 27-14 through two periods of play.
The Vipers pulled back within one at 6:11 of the final period when Evan Ferguson scored, but Steven Fowler got that goal back for the Maroons later in the period.
Ryan Wagner had 28 saves in goal for Chatham. Stewart stopped 37 shots for LaSalle.
Game 5 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday in LaSalle, then the series returns to Memorial Arena Thursday for game 6. Both games can be heard live on CFCO Country 92.9FM/AM 630.
