By Blake Mossey
Hat tricks from both Colin Martin and Blair Brewer helped the St. Marys Lincolns to an 8-6 win over the Chatham Maroons on Friday in front of 512 fans at the Pyramid Centre in St. Marys.

After scoring just eight goals in their first five games, the Lincolns (4-4-0) have now scored 19 goals in their last three games - all wins. The Maroons (3-5-0), saw their road record fall to 1-5.

The Lincolns got on the scoreboard early with Brewer getting his first of the night at the 1:04 mark. His shot bounced of the pad of Maroons netminder Chris McKichan (L 1-1-0) and just trickled over the goal line. At the 12:50 mark, Kyle Provily scored his first goal of the season after accepting a nice pass from behind the net from Kevin McClelland. Just 59 seconds later, Chatham's Justin Buzzeo scored a powerplay goal from the edge of the crease, slamming home a pass from Evan Stibbard. At the 18:09 mark, Martin (pictured), playing his first game with the Lincolns since being re-assigned by the London Knights, scored his first of the game after the Lincolns caused a turnover in the Maroons zone. Martin made a great move on McKichan to put the Lincs up 3-1.

Just 42 seconds into the second period the Lincolns connected on the powerplay as Tom Jobson made a great pass from the point through the penalty killers to Brewer who fired it in for his second of the game. At the 6:21 mark, Buzzeo deflected a point shot past Lincs goalie Stephen Heming (W, 1-2-0) for his second goal of the game to cut the lead to 4-2. With 8:46 to go in the second the Maroons connected on the powerplay to pull to within a goal as Mike Rivard scored his second goal of the season.

But the back-breaker for the Maroons came with just two seconds to go in the period. With the Lincolns enjoying a 5-on-3 advantage thanks to a bench minor to Maroons head coach Marc Swayze, Brewer completed his hat trick to give the Lincolns a little breathing room heading into the third.

The Maroons would return the favour early in the third when they scored on their own two-man advantage as Rivard scored his second powerplay goal of the game to cut the Linc lead to 5-4. With the Lincolns still one man short, Martin deked out two Maroons defensemen and McKichan to score a beautiful shorthanded goal to put the Lincs back up by two. Three minutes later, Martin completed his hat trick on the end of a nice passing play to put St. Marys up 7-4.

That should have put the game out of reach, and the game took on the appearance of a boxing match as four separate fights broke out. But after the rash of five-minute majors, Maroons rookie defenceman Keith Maisonville scored two powerplay goals in 61 seconds - the second coming with McKichan pulled for an extra attacker with 1:15 remaining -- to make it a one goal game again. During a frantic finish, Lincolns defenseman Reuben Smith shot the puck the length of the ice into an empty net with 14 seconds left to finally put the game away.

Chatham scored five powerplay goals in 12 chances on the night, while St. Marys went two for 13 with the man advantage and added a shorthanded goal.

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