Jr. A Spirit sleepwalks to 10th straight loss
Jr. A Spirit sleepwalks to 10th straight loss
Sports
October 11, 2008 08:45 PM
Mike Hayakawa
For the Stouffville Spirit, the streak goes on.
It’s one the Ontario Junior Hockey League club would like to end as soon as possible.
For now though, the Spirit continue to be mired in a funk after they lost their 10th straight game Thursday against the Toronto Junior Canadiens 5-4 at the Stouffville Arena.
The Spirit’s only win in 13 starts this season came Sept. 14, 4-3 in a shootout in Newmarket.
Spotting the Canadiens a 2-0 lead in Thursday’s first period, the Spirit came back to cut their deficit entering the second period on a goal by Matt McCann.
That seemed to give the Spirit some life as Matt Viola tied the game at the 1:46 mark of the second stanza.
After Toronto scored to regain the lead, the Spirit countered with a goal by defenceman Reed Smith to tie the game.
But that would be short-lived as the Canadiens, who took a timeout after Smith’s goal, scored with just under two minutes left in the stanza to lead 4-3 entering the final 20 minutes.
After Toronto scored a goal at the 57-second mark of the third period, the Spirit battled back to within a goal just 41 seconds later when Christopher Chiste scored.
That, however, would be the final goal of the game.
The Spirit outshot Toronto 48-41, including a 19-9 margin in the third period.
Spirit general manager and associate coach Mark Joslin thought his club’s slow start was the game’s turning point.
“It looked like we were half asleep after the warm-ups. We had a bad start for the first five minutes of the game and that set the tone,” he said. “We beat ourselves and couldn’t find a way to win.”
Despite the loss, Joslin praised the work of Spirit goalie Kori Coelho, who made his debut with the club after arriving in a trade from the Vaughan Vipers earlier in the week.
Joslin continues to hint that other player moves are coming.
Occupying last place in the Central Division with four points (0 wins, 10 losses, one shootout win and one shootout loss), the Spirit will play in Newmarket Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and return to Stouffville Arena Thursday to host the Markham Waxers at 7:30 p.m.