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The St. Marys Lincolns have won nine straight games with only nine goals allowed to open the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League season.
“It’s such a disorganized part of the season in the beginning,” Lincolns coach Jeff Bradley said. “Being organized has given us a bit of an advantage.”
Familiarity with the Lincolns system helps. The club has seven returning players in their third year with the team. Five others were part of last season’s run to the Sutherland Cup final.
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St. Marys doesn’t give up many shots and it has scored more shorthanded goals (four) than power-play goals against (three) so far.
“Over the last four years, we haven’t changed too much from our style of play,” said Bradley, a former London Nationals assistant. “The learning curve hasn’t been very big.”
The goaltending tandem of Colby Booth-Housego and Barrie Colts draft pick Nico Armellin has combined for three shutouts and four one-goal games.
“We pressure quite a bit but keep that (third forward) high on the forecheck,” Bradley said. “It allows our defence to get up the boards quickly and take away options out wide very early. We need that last layer from the high guy so we can be aggressive down the wall.
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“It seems like we sit back. But we do attack and it kind of works out for us.”
The Lincs put their perfect record on the line in a home and home set starting Wednesday in Stratford against the Warriors.
“We’ve played some good teams,” Bradley said. “This is kind of the next one. We do put a lot of stress on defending and do quite a bit of video on it. That’s the stat we always want to lead in. We have a lot of guys who played big games for us in that locker room.
“They always turn to that mentality that we’re not going to lose these big games.”
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