Game 4, Western Conference Championship Series
(1) St. Marys Lincolns 1
(2) Chatham Maroons 4
(CHA leads best-of-7 series 3-1)
Maroons push top-seeded Lincolns to brink of elimination
Eamon Edgar scored his first career playoff goal and rookie netminder Gannon Hunter made 39 saves as the Maroons (11-5) won their third straight game of the series in front of 945 fans at Chatham Memorial Arena. Chatham is now one win away from their first conference title since 2022, while the defending conference champion Lincolns (9-7) must now win three straight in order to claim their second straight title.
VIDEO: Goals from Edgar, Richter propel Maroons to 3-1 series lead
Edgar — an AP callup playing his 7th game of the playoffs — opened the scoring 15:02 into the game. Dylan Richter made it 2-0 with his league-leading 10th goal of the playoffs with 1:23 left in the first. And that was all the offence the Maroons needed. The Lincolns made it 2-1 in the third minute of the final frame on former Maroon Cohen Bidgood‘s 5th goal of the playoffs, but Hunter and the Maroons closed the door on the Lincolns’ offence the rest of the way. Cruz Ferguson (4) and Richter added empty-net goals late in the third.
Despite missing four games due to injury, Richter now leads all GOJHL scorers with 11 goals and 22 points in the playoffs. Maroons captain Blain Bacik — playing his 43rd career playoff game — assisted on Richter’s 2nd goal and is now tied for the scoring lead among GOJHL defencemen with 13 points in the playoffs.
Edgar was chosen in the 2nd round (35th overall) by the Barrie Colts in the recent OHL Draft. He scored 24 goals and 38 points for the Sun County Panthers U16’s and had 2 assists in 2 regular season games for the Maroons.
Hunter — who has played every playoff game in net for the Maroons — earned his league-leading 11th win of the playoffs.
In his first start since Game 5 of the conference semi-final against London, Lincolns netminder Colby Booth-Housego (L, 6-2) stopped 31 of 33 shots faced.
The Maroons improved their home record to 8-1.
Maroons GM/head coach Richard Santos was pleased with the outcome, but admitted the teams played a tightly contested game that could have gone either way. “I thought it was a hard fought game from both teams … couple bounces either way and it’s a different game . We need to be ready for them tomorrow and play our game.”
Lincolns head coach Jeff Bradley was happy to see his team’s performance improve from Game 3, but admitted the slow start proved costly. “I was happy with our effort. We were unfortunate to go down two goals in the first, but we did a good job battling back.” He saw signs that the series is far from being decided. “There’s still a lot of belief in our room, and our effort showed that. We saw some improvements tonight in areas we were struggling, and now we need make sure they pay off. Our season depends on it.”
The Maroons were 0/1 on the power play and are now 2/16 (12.5%) in the series. The Lincolns were 0/3 with the man advantage and are 2/11 (18.2%) in the series.
Full credit to the Maroons for their success against the top-seeded Lincolns. Yet for St. Marys — GOJHL regular season champions with 42 wins in 50 games — their recent slump is surprising …
*they won a franchise record 20 road games in the regular season, but have now lost four straight on the road, with their away record dropping to 2-5 in the playoffs
*their longest losing “streak” in the regular season was 2 games. The Game 4 loss marked their second 3-game losing streak of the playoffs (the first being games 4 thru 6 of the conference semi-final against London). Since their Game 3 win against the Nationals, the Lincolns have an overall record of 2-6.
*the top forward line of Lee, Spagnolo and Voortman — which combined for 91 goals and 202 points in the regular season — have scored 1 goal and 2 points in the series
Game 5 will take place Friday night at the Pyramid R.C. in St. Marys. Game time is 7:30pm.
The Eastern Conference Championship Series also resumes Friday when the #1 St. Catharines Falcons host the #3 Fort Erie Meteors at the Seymour-Hannah S.E.C. in St. Catharines with puck drop at 7:00pm. That series is tied 2-2.
