The Chatham Maroons dropped a 7-3 decision to the London Nationals on Wednesday.
The Nationals set the tone in the first period with Brenden Trottier and James Turner giving London a 2-0 in just over three minutes into the game. Dakota Bohn cut the lead in half with a goal for Chatham, but Jack Webb, Luke Drewitt and Max Vinogradov scored back-to-back goals to give the Nationals a 5-1 lead heading into the second frame.
Brandon Glover scored late in the second period to extend London's lead and Dane Johnstone added a second goal for Chatham with 21 seconds before the end of the frame.
"We stepped it up, moved our feet, [we were] on the puck a lot and it was a feel good [second] period for our guys," says Maroons Head Coach Ron Horvat. "We talked after the second, and [I said] 'you must of have felt better about yourselves...' and they did, they all admitted they did."
The Nationals continued to outplay the Maroons in the third with Kyle Dawson scoring London's seventh goal of the night with just under ten minutes left to play. Steven Fowler scored for Chatham 12:16 into the period, but the Maroons weren't able to bound back from a four point deficit.
Nationals goaltender Zachary Springer made 35 saves, while Maroons goaltender Kyle Droge made 19 saves, and goalie Ryan Wagner made 12.
"There's some obvious things out here that everybody saw... that we have to clean up a little bit," says Horvat. "We gave up, I know, seven goals but there was a lot of opportunities."
The Maroons are in St. Thomas on Friday to take on the Stars at 7:30pm. And then on October 4, the Nationals are on home ice once again to battle the Sarnia Legionnaires at 7:30pm.
