The LaSalle Vipers were on the wrong side of a 4-0 scoreline, falling to the Chatham Maroons in Game 3 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals on Sunday night in Chatham.
In front of 1000 fans at the Chatham Memorial Arena, the Maroons played as a desparate team and turned in a solid 60 minutes of hockey in front of goaltender Brett Fullerton, who made 48 saves in a shutout performance. Chatham scored once in each of the first two periods on goals by Josh Lepain and Julien Gervais, and then got a power-play marker from David Brown in the third, before Joel Fonovic capped the scoring with an empty-net goal.
The Vipers did not play poorly by any means, making few mistakes and outshooting the Maroons 48-26 overall. They could not however muster enough in the way of high-quality scoring chances on Fullerton, as the Maroons did a good job of keeping the LaSalle attackers at bay. It was the first time that the Vipers had been shutout this season.
Still leading the series 2 games to 1, the Vipers will now return home as the series shifts to LaSalle for Games 4 and 5. Puck-drop for Wednesday night’s Game 4 is set for 7:00 PM.
