Thistles fall in opener to Barrie’s three-goal runs
The Fergus Thistles yielded a pair of three-goal runs to the Barrie Bombers as they dropped their Ontario Junior C Lacrosse League opener 9-6 Saturday night at Barrie’s Peggy Hill arena.
The Thistles opened the scoring with a power-play goal just after the game’s four-minute mark for their only lead of the game.
Barrie responded with a trio of goals, but Fergus squared the score at 3-3 at the end of the first period with two goals in the final five minutes of the period.
The teams traded goals in the second period, Barrie twice scoring with Fergus replying shortly thereafter both times. Then Barrie grabbed the lead for good with a pair of goals five seconds apart to claim a 7-5 lead by the end of the second.
The hosts scored the first goal of the third to complete their second three-goal run before the teams added a single goal apiece in the final 10 minutes of the game.
Jordan Mueller had three goals and an assist for Fergus while Aiden McDougall had two goals and two assists. Logan Joyes scored the other goal while Tye Sanderson had two assists and Kody Brown, Kaiden Patterson, Ewan Mackie, Jared Bettonvil and Jack Webley each had one assist.
Zach Burke and Jake Hales tallied twice apiece for Barrie while single goals were added by Connor Crossland, Jack Fletcher, Brayden McKinnon, Carter Barrie and Cameron MacKinnon. Tye Burke had four assists while Logan Palomaki had three, Luke Curro and Dylan Palomaki had two each and Jaiden Maseko had one.
The Bombers outshot the Thistles 42-38 and Fergus had a pair of power-play goals, the lone special teams’ goals of the game.
Sam Krauter had 33 saves for Fergus and Kaden Land had 32 for Barrie.
While the game was the opening match of the season for the Thistles, the Bombers had been edged 8-7 by the Orangeville Northmen in their season opener in Orangeville Friday night.
The Thistles are to host the Wilmot Wild Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex in Wilmot’s season opener.
- Guelph Sports Journal