Sailors Face Challenge With Four Games Left
Three Points Behind Mount Forest
The Sailors face yet another uphill challenge heading into the last four games of the regular season.
Mount Forest shocked the high-flying Mitchell Hawks 5-2 last Friday to move the seventh-place Patriots three points ahead of Goderich.
Coupled with that were two frustrating losses for the Sailors in Wingham and Mitchell.
The Sailors dropped a spirited 4-3 decision to the Ironmen on the road in a game last Friday that saw Goderich’s power-play unit shine.
After more than 37 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Ironmen went up 1-0 late in the second period.
Scott Miller and Brandon Dykxhoorn set up Brett McGuinness for a power-play goal early in the third to tie the game 1-1.
Scott Miller scored with the man-advantage with assists from Jamie Miller and McGuinness to get the Sailors back in it -- Goderich trailed 3-2 at the 8:37 mark of the third.
The Sailors’ power-play unit clicked again exactly one minute later as McGuinness took the feed from Jamie Miller and Ben Sloetjes to gain a 3-3 tie.
Wingham scored the game-winner late in the third.
Goderich netminder Shawn Gethke made 30 saves while the Sailors made the most of their 23 shots on goal.
The previous Sunday saw the Sailors lose 6-4 at Mitchell in the second-half of the home-and-home set against the Hawks.
This was a hard-fought contest most of the way through and the Sailors struck first -- again on the power-play -- as McGuinness converted a pass from Sloetjes at 9:31 of the opening period.
The Sailors led 2-1 after 20 minutes of play as Dykxhoorn and Sloetjes combined on the set-up for Jamie Miller to punch the puck home with 4:35 to go in the first.
After falling behind by a goal in the middle frame, Scott Miller and Tom Bedour got it done on the feed to Tucker Dorscht for one of his admittedly rare goals that turned out to be timely in squaring the count at 3-3.
The man-advantage worked again for the Sailors in the third period as McGuinness scored from Brett Austin and Sloetjes to bring Goderich within a goal after Mitchell scored twice late in the second to go up 5-3.
Mitchell finished the scoring exactly one minute later at 8:31 of the final period.
Sailors’ goaltender Sheldon Reid stopped 26 of 32 Hawks’ shots.
The Sailors scored twice against Mitchell starter Kyle Brodhagen on a total of seven shots in the first period -- he was replaced in goal by Josh Nurse the rest of the way.
A short bench for the Sailors the night before.
The Sailors had only 15 players dressed as they absorbed a 9-3 loss to Mitchell for whom eight different players scored at MRC.
The Sailors responded quickly to Mitchell's opening goal in the first period with a marker by McGuinness on a set-up from Brett Phillips and Bedour.
McGuinness and Brendan Thomson fed Grant Alton to put the Sailors ahead 2-1 at 3:59 of the opening frame.
Bedour connected with Sloetjes on the power-play with 11:55 left in the third-period to complete the Sailors' scoring.
Sailors' Head-Coach Todd Goetz says the grind of a long season with only four wins to show for it so far is taking its toll.
Goetz says his players showed little energy or intensity through the first 40 minutes.
Of the seven goals Mitchell scored in the first and second periods, one was short-handed and three were scored on the power-play.
Goetz says even though their prior two games in Walkerton and Mount Forest were losses, the Sailors played well enough to win both.
He says their practices the previous Sunday and Tuesday also went well.
Goetz says despite all the adversity he still has faith in the potential of his team.
Goetz says the Sailors enjoy their playing environment and even toward the end of a long regular-season filled with reversals they're still having fun.
Goetz says there are recurring stories across a number of junior-level and college sports where even some winning teams are challenged by their surroundings.
The Sailors travel to Kincardine Friday night for an 8:30 game at the Davidson Rec Centre, then face the Walkerton Hawks in thier final regular-season home game at MRC, Saturday at 8pm.
Goderich wraps up the campaign on the road with games at Mount Forest on February 12th and at Hanover on the 13th.
It remains an open question exactly who the Sailors will face in the opening round of the playoffs, depending on whether they can overtake Mount Forest for seventh-place again.
Goderich has the potential of facing Walkerton, Mitchell or Hanover in the first-round best-of-seven.
