Cornwall Ontario – The Cornwall Nationals scored early and often on Thursday night en route to a 9-2 victory over the St. Clair Shores Fighting Saints.
Anthony Mezzagno and Jason Dolgy led the Cornwall offence, each with a four-point night. The victory, in front of 496 fans at the Civic Complex, snapped a two-game losing streak for the Nationals.
Mezzagno opened the scoring for Cornwall 2:02 into the contest when he beat Andy DiCristofaro short side. Mezzagno added his second of the period when his shot just trickled over the goal line at 5:04.
Mezzagno then set up Cornwall’s leading scorer, Dolgy, who gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead at 7:39 of the opening frame. Moments later, Zachary Zulkanycz got the Fighting Shores on the scoreboard with a powerplay marker at 10:50.
The Mezzagno show continued in the second period. The talented forward found a wide-open JC Houde, who buried a shot past DiCristofaro for a shorthanded goal at 5:50 of the second.
Moments after a crushing hit by Cornwall’s Jacob Dawson, MJ Graham found the back of the net to give the Nationals a 5-1 at 11:17 of the middle frame.
With the Nationals moving the puck around nicely on an effective powerplay, Maxime Guyon fired a wrist shot past DiCristofaro with 2:34 left on the clock in the second.
Guyon added a powerplay marker 3:24 into the third for his second of the night with a perfectly placed wrist shot. Moments later, Zulkanycz tapped in his second of the night at 4:48 of the final frame.
Cornwall’s Jeff Legue set up Dolgy with a perfect pass to give the Nationals an 8-2 lead with 6:36 to play in the game before Jason Lepine one-timed an absolute blast to the top corner with 3:09 to play to round out the scoring.
St. Clair Shores outshot Cornwall 43-42. Mezzagno (first), Dolgy (second) and Guyon were the announced stars.
The Cornwall Nationals are back in action in the New Year. Cornwall travels to Port Huron Friday, Jan. 6 to take on the Prowlers. The Cornwall Nationals host the Berlin River Drivers on Saturday, Jan. 7. Game time is 7:30 p.m.