Patriots sparkle on special teams to ground Flyers

GODERICH – The Mount Forest Patriots were pretty special with their special teams as they completed a winning weekend by posting a 6-2 victory over the Goderich Flyers in Provincial Junior Hockey League play Sunday afternoon at the Goderich Maitland Recreation Centre.

Three special teams goals in the final nine minutes of the game allowed the Patriots to pull away.

Mount Forest Patriots 6 Goderich 2

Special teams were big for the Patriots throughout the game as they finished with four power-play goals and a shorthanded tally.

Goderich had a pair of even-strength goals.

The Patriots led 2-0 at the end of the first period and 3-1 after the second before the Flyers cut the gap to a single goal in the second minute of the third.

Calan Tanzi-Foshay turned in a five-point performance for Mount Forest as he had four goals and an assist. Hayden Coulter and Christopher Prucha scored the other goals while Derrick Cornfield had three assists. Also getting one assist apiece were Prucha, Matt McLellan, Darcy Winkler, Mark Aljoe and Coulter.

Ethan Hill and Parker Gibbings scored for Goderich while Colton Quipp assisted on both goals. Bryce Lee also had an assist.

The Patriots outshot the Flyers 42-31. Joshua Peters stopped 29 shots in the Mount Forest net while Spencer Lazarevich had 36 saves for Goderich.

The Patriots had blanked the Wingham Ironmen 3-0 in a home game Saturday night.

The weekend wins leave the Patriots fourth in the Pollock Division at 3-1-0-1. Wingham leads at 5-2-0-0 and is followed by the Hanover Barons at 4-1-0-1, Mitchell Hawks at 4-2-0-0, the Patriots, Kincardine Bulldogs at 3-3-0-0, Walkerton Hawks at 1-5-0-0 and Goderich at 0-6-0-0.

The Patriots are to play at Walkerton Friday at 8:20 p.m. and host Hanover Saturday at 8 p.m.

• Guelph Sports Journal