The Leamington Flyers came back and held on to beat the Legionnaires 3-2 Saturday night at Sarnia Arena.
Leamington now has 68 points on the season and maintains its first-place showing in the GOJHL Western Conference standings. The Legionnaires are in fourth place with 49 points.
The only goal of the first period came off the stick of Sarnia's Blake Butler, which put the Legionnaires up 1-0. The Flyers were the more aggressive team on net in the first 20 minutes, outshooting Sarnia 18-12.
Leamington scored twice in the middle frame to take the lead. Rory DeNiro scored the equalizer, then Michael Andrews provided the go-ahead goal.
Sarnia tied the game again at 4:10 in the third period with Logan Gardner scoring on the power play, but the Flyers picked up the winner from Brett Postula at 14:46.
Zach Borgiel had 27 saves in goal for the Flyers. Jakob Knowles stopped 39 shots for Sarnia.
Both teams now head into the final week of the regular season and next hit the ice on Family Day. The Flyers travel to St. Thomas for a matinee on Monday. The Legionnaires head to St. Marys.
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Brett Vorshuk and Dylan Robinson scored two goals each as the LaSalle Vipers beat the Kings 8-3 at Komoka.
LaSalle is in fifth place in the Western Conference with 48 points, while the Kings currently hold the sixth playoff seed with 41 points.
Both nets saw a lot of action in the first period. Dillon Ward scored the first goal for the Kings at 7:59, but the Vipers tied the game a minute and 33 seconds later when Vorshuk found the net for the first time. LaSalle took its first lead of the game on Zane Dalpe's goal at 12:19, then Komoka tied the game at 2-2 soon after with a Ryan McAllister power-play lamplighter. Back to back goals from Spencer Paradis and Evan Ferguson extended the Vipers' lead to 4-2 at the first intermission.
Kings' goalie Owen Say was pulled after the period for backup Nathan Young, but the Vipers continued to fire pucks at the Komoka net in the middle frame. Robinson and A.J. Ryan added two more goals for LaSalle before Jacob Rochford scored for the Kings with 44 seconds left in the period.
The Vipers added two goals in the third, which turned out to be the second goals from Vorshuk and Robinson on the night.
Will Tragge had 28 shots come his way in goal for LaSalle. He stopped 25. Say and Young combined for 34 saves.
Komoka hosts the Strathroy Rockets for a Family Day clash, while the Vipers travel to London on Monday afternoon.
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The Strathroy Rockets put up a fight against the London Nationals but fell 8-5 at West Middlesex Memorial Arena.
The Nationals kept pace with the Flyers, remaining just three points behind with 65, in second place. The Rockets have 37 points and hold the seventh playoff seed.
It took just 20 seconds for Strathroy to score the first goal, off the stick of Carson Perry. Adam Keyes evened things up for the Nationals at 6:52. Max Ewart's power-play goal gave Strathroy a 2-1 lead, but the Nationals' offence took over with a trio of goals, from Cal Davis, Austin Jeffers and Wes Dobbin for a 4-2 London lead after the first 20 minutes.
Strathroy began to fight back in the second frame. Brendan Mairs pulled within one goal at 2:23, though London's Colin Wilson got the two-goal advantage back 38 seconds later. The Rockets scored twice to knot the game up at five each before the second interval, thanks to Daniel Aspro and T.J. Harris.
The Nationals dominated the third period with three straight goals. James Turner scored the winning goal at 36 seconds into the stanza. Wilson and Jeffers then scored their second goals of the evening.
Jukka Schotter had 27 saves in the crease for the Nationals. Vince Michelizzi stopped 34 shots for the Rockets.