Jan 08, 2014 | slee | 980 views
Warrior Victory
The Stratford Nes-Tech Warriors started 2014 off strong by splitting weekend games versus the London Bandits and Sarnia Sting, including their first league victory of the year.
On Saturday, the Warriors played hard for two periods against a strong Bandits Black team before being outscored 4-1 in the third period to end up on the losing end of a 7-3 score in a chippy affair. Stratford got goals from Scott Thornton, Garrett Culliton and Connor Hill while Tyler Gibb, Gabe Plain, Matthew Whittemore and Tyler Guy added assists. On Sunday, Stratford turned an outstanding goaltending performance from Ezra Lee and a gutsy performance from Thornton into a 2-1 victory over a strong defensive Sarnia team. Stratford was outshot 26-8 in the game but Lee continually turned aside great scoring chances. With the game tied 1-1 and less than five minutes to play, Stratford received a 5 minute major penalty leaving them shorthanded for the remainder of the game but a great individual effort by Thornton resulted in his second goal of the game to seal the victory. Whittemore added an assist while Guy was solid on the penalty kill. Keegan McArthur, Braeden White, Hill and Plain turned in solid efforts on defence for the Warriors.