Dec 20, 2013 | slee | 943 views
Impressive tie against the London Nationals
The Stratford Nes-Tech Warriors played three games over the past five days and came away with a couple of 8-3 losses to London Bandits and Sarnia before an impressive 1-1 tie versus the league leading London Nationals.
In a penalty filled game against the Bandits, Stratford got goals from Garrett Culliton, Scotty Thornton and Tyson Jurchuk to keep the Warriors close after two periods before allowing 5 goals in the third period. Both teams combined for 48 minutes of penalties which made it impossible for either team to establish any kind of flow. Less than 24 hours later they travelled to Sarnia and the long bus ride seemed to have a toll on the team as they came out flat and found themselves behind early on in the game. The Warriors got goals from Matthew Whittemore, Thornton and Jurchuk but never really challenged the well rested Sting. The Warriors then faced the league leading Nationals, who came to town having outscored Stratford 19-2 in its two previous games, and got a solid team effort despite missing three players. Goaltender Cieran Diebolt all but stood on his head as he continually foiled Nationals scoring chances. Thornton was a force offensively and his solo rush in the first period was rewarded when Jurchuk followed up a rebound and deposited into an open cage to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. That lead held up until London scored with less than three minutes to go in the game to tie the score. Stratford got solid defensive efforts from Riley Mathieson, Gabe Plain and Connor Hill to limit the Nationals scoring opportunities.