Three games in as many nights this week played havoc with the St. Thomas Stars.
They lost all three and in the final two, surrendered seven goals each game including a 7-4 defeat last night at the Joe Thornton Community Centre at the hands of the Leamington Flyers.
The previous night they were stung 7-2 by the LaSalle Vipers.
In the three games, the Stars were only able to connect on one of 13 powerplay opportunities.
Friday’s game opened on an optimistic note with Tristen Roberts giving the Stars a 1-0 lead seven minutes into the contest.
And then Leamington unlocked the flood gates with four goals in under four minutes to shut down the Stars by the first intermission.
Gavin Grundner, Connor McCracken, Ryan MacPherson and Andrew Uturo beat St. Thomas netminder Tyler Roberts, who was replaced by Wyatt Sloetjes appearing in his first Jr. B game this season.
The St. Thomas native started the PJHL Jr. C campaign with the Norwich Merchants before moving over to the Port Stanley Sailors.
He got a rude introduction from the Flyers as Uturo put the puck behind him 64 seconds into the middle frame and Jason Daraiche netted a short-handed goal to run the score up to 6-1.
The Stars attempted to mount a comeback as Jack Weber and Trent Ballentyne found the mark before the end of the period to close the gap to 6-3 after 40 minutes.
The teams traded goals in the final period with Wyatt O’Neill hitting for the Flyers and Connor Snedden responded with his fifth goal.
The Flyers won all six encounters with the Stars this season and have opened up a three-point lead over second-place London in the GOJHL Western Conference standings.
St. Thomas remains in seventh place, four points in front of Strathroy.
The Stars get a break now until Friday when they host the sixth-place Komoka Kings in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Joe Thornton Community Centre.
