Sarnia Legionnaires' comeback falls short in loss to St. Mary's

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Austin Harper scored twice Thursday in the Sarnia Legionnaires’ 7-5 loss to the St. Marys Lincolns.

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Anthony Tudino, Cameron Graham and Ty Moffatt also scored for the Legionnaires before a crowd of 736 at Pat Stapleton Arena.

Logan Phillips made 34 saves for the Legionnaires, who cut a four-goal deficit to one before suffering their second straight loss.

The Legionaires (9-11-1-0) are sixth in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Western Conference. They’ll visit the Komoka Kings Saturday and LaSalle Vipers Wednesday before hosting the London Nationals at 7:10 p.m. Thursday.

The Lincolns outshot the Legionnaires 19-5 in the first period while building a 4-1 lead, thanks to three late goals in 57 seconds.

The Lincolns led 5-1 until Graham and Moffatt scored 1:21 apart late in the second period. Harper twice drew them within a goal in the third period.

Ethan Weir scored twice for the Lincolns and Josh Kirton made 25 saves. Josh Cornfield, Noah Vandenbrink, Luca Spagnolo and Ryan Hodkinson also tallied before Blake Elzinga scored an empty-netter.

Legionnaires forward Colton Graham served the first game of his six-game suspension.

Leighton resigns as Spits goalie coach

Petrolia’s Michael Leighton has resigned as the Windsor Spitfires goalie coach after the firing of first-year head coach Jerrod Smith.

Leighton, 42, was in his third season with the Spitfires. His exit was announced after the resignation of assistant coach Andy Delmore, a former Sarnia Sting defenceman and assistant coach.

Leighton’s 18-year pro playing career included 110 regular-season games in the NHL and a trip to the 2010 Stanley Cup final with the Philadelphia Flyers. He owns the American Hockey League record with 50 career shutouts.

Delmore, 46, played 283 NHL regular-season games with Philadelphia, Buffalo, Nashville and Columbus.

The Spitfires had planned to make Delmore an interim co-coach with Casey Torres, who is now the interim head coach.

Skidding Flags lose third straight

The fifth-place Mooretown Flags took a three-game losing streak into Friday’s game at the Lakeshore Canadiens in the Provincial Junior Hockey League’s Stobbs Division.

The Flags (5-10-2-1) gave up five second-period goals Wednesday in a 6-1 road loss to the Wheatley Sharks.

Dracen Campbell of the Flags opened the scoring 46 seconds into the game.

Josh Breault made 12 saves in the third period after replacing John Chartrand, who gave up six goals on 33 shots.

The game was paused with 6:19 left in the third period to repair a bench door. When it couldn’t be fixed quickly, both teams agreed to end the game and call it complete, Flags general manager John Baker said.

mmalone@postmedia.com