Maroons end regular season with one win, one loss
After falling 7-6 to the Rockets in Strathroy Saturday night, the Chatham Maroons rebounded with a 5-4 win Sunday night against the Komoka Kings at Memorial Arena.
The Maroons went into the weekend two players short due to suspensions. Julien Gervais is out for two games and Liam Doyle is out for four after being suspended for head contact during Thursday’s game with the LaSalle Vipers.
On Saturday, the Maroons trailed 3-1 at the end of the first period but led 5-4 after 40 minutes. The Rockets were able to pull ahead 7-5 by the 6:25 mark of the final frame. The Maroons made it close with another goal at the 10:35 mark, but couldn’t get the tying goal.
The Maroons pulled Luka Dobrich with a minute and 35 seconds left in the game, which turned into six on four when Strathroy picked up a tripping penalty.
Chatham’s Dobrich stopped 50 of Strathroy’s 57 shots and Dylan Grover stopped 37 off Chatham’s 43 shots.
Nate Dowling had two goals and one assist, Connor Paronuzzi scored once and had one assist, while Joshua Lepain, Brendan Gouin and Owen Kalp each had one goal.
Jaxen Fortier-Smith, Matthew Cunningham and David Brown picked up two helpers each. Noah Mathieson and Brenden McKay also picked up single assists.
The Maroons returned home Sunday afternoon to face the rockets, with Nate Dowling putting Chatham on the board first, scoring his 10th goal of the season. Joel Fonovic (13) and Noah Mathieson ( 24) both added an assist.
The Kings tied it at one at the 9:05 mark, but David Brown’s goal (25) with Brenden McKay(12) assisting put the Maroons ahead by one at 10:05 into the frame.
The first period was shortened by a minute and 47 seconds when the Maroons’ Brendan Gouin was driven into the boards by Komoka’s Colin Holmes. With Gouin motionless on the ice, Maroons Head Trainer Aaron Jackson immediately called 911 and he was taken to the hospital in Chatham by EMS.
No further details regarding Gouin’s condition have been released at this time.
The game resumed with Holmes being assessed a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for charging.
Chatham outshot Komoka 18 -15 in the first frame.
The Maroons went ahead 3-1 with Owen Sculthorp (6) scoring a power-play goal at the 34-second mark. Assists went to David Brown ( 27) and Connor Paronuzzi (26).
The Maroons then surrendered a short-handed goal in the second period.
Brendan McKay (3) made it 4-2 for Chatham with Brayden Degelas (27) and David Brown(28) picking up assists at 3:17 into the second. With that point, Brown hit the 100-point mark of his career with the Maroons.
Komoka then pulled to within one at the seven-minute mark of the period.
The score remained 4-3 going into the third, with Chatham outshooting Komoka 23-13 in the second frame.
Brown made it 101 points with his second goal of the game at 3:05 of the third, restoring a two-goal lead for Chatham.
The Maroons gave up another short-handed goal at 10:23 cutting their lead back to one.
Maroons goaltender Brett Fullerton shut the door on the Kings for the rest of the game. Even with the Kings going six on five with net minder Josh Hannivan on the bench for the final 54 seconds of the game.
The Maroons outshot the Kings 15-13 in the third.
The Maroons sit in fifth place in the Western Conference at the end of the regular season and will face the fourth-place Vipers in the first round of the playoffs. Game 1 will be played in LaSalle with more details on the playoff series expected this week.