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WAXERS GET RATTLED BY
THORNHILL TWICE BUT COACHES CONFIDENT OF TURNAROUND But suffering a 6-3 loss to the Thornhill Rattlers at Centennial Arena on Friday and an 8-5 setback to the same club in Thornhill was excruciatingly painful for the head coach and a few other members of the Waxers. Last season, Herrington and several current Waxers toiled under the Rattlers name. Needless to say, those two games, which were the first played between the Waxers and Rattlers this season, added extra incentive to Herrington. While Herrington expected his club to go through some peaks and valleys during the regular season, he felt the two losses came at an inopportune time. "On a personal level, maybe I was a little more disappointed than the average two-game losing streak considering who we were playing." "You have those stretches where you lose a few games. But it's unfortunate that it had to happen against Thornhill." Not taking anything away from the Rattlers, who are a totally different club from a year ago, Herrington acknowledged they were the better club on both nights. "They outworked us and I think it came down to them wanting it more than us," said Herrington, who gave special praise to their new head coach, former NHL player Jerome Dupont. "He has them playing well together." In Friday's outing, a slow first period haunted the Waxers as they fell behind 5-0 after 20 minutes. Unanswered goals by Ben Buxton, his first as a Waxer, and Jimmy Ball, cut the deficit to 5-2 after two periods. A shorthanded goal by Chris Petracco narrowed the deficit to 5-3 early in the third. But the Rattlers added a goal before the final buzzer sounded to round out the scoring. "When you get down two goals it's a hard mountain to climb," said Herrington. "But when you're down by five it's almost impossible. I don't know why we came out flat." On Saturday, the Rattlers held a 4-3 lead after two periods and broke it open in the third with four unanswered goals. The Waxers received all of its scoring from one line. Bryan Lachapelle delivered the hat trick and two assists, Petracco, two goals and one helper and Kevin Tompkins, four assists. Mike Clarke added two assists and Ball, one.
Although the losses extended the Waxers' winless streak to three games, Herrington said there's no reason to hit the panic button. "We just had two extremely bad efforts which you have throughout the year. The timing was unfortunate to go back to back." "But I have confidence in the players that we have along with myself and the assistant coaches. I think we have a handle of what we can accomplish and how to break out of this." Now 13-7-1-2 on the season, the fourth-place Waxers will host the Wexford Raiders on Friday at 8pm and play a return game in Scarborough on Sunday at 7pm..
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