Fronts Earn Gritty Comeback Win
Mitch Lebar scored three goals and Ryan Spooner went bar down in overtime, as the Kingston Frontenacs scored twice in the final minute and 16 seconds to overcome a late two goal deficit and defeat former goaltender John Cullen and the Sarnia Sting 6-5 in overtime. “Sarnia battled hard and you could tell they were playing hard for Cully, but our guys never quit and hopefully this will be one of those big character building wins that can define a season,” said Head Coach Doug Gilmour.
The Sting got off to a terrific start, getting the opening goal from Kale Kerbashian and at one point early in the game, held an 11-1 shot advantage. The Fronts started to turn the momentum midway through the period, as Spooner made a nice pass down low to Moon, who was able to deke out Cullen and pull the Fronts on even terms. Two minutes later, it was Lebar scoring his first of three on the night, holding onto the puck and out-waiting a sprawled out Cullen for the 2-1 Kingston lead.
Things got interesting late in the period, as gritty forward Conor Stokes laid a perfectly clean body check behind the net, which brought in six foot seven defenseman Kyle Flemmington, who immediately dropped his gloves and started punching Stokes. Stokes eventually dropped the gloves as well and the two combatants entered a spirited tussle, but at the very end, Flemmington pulled up and Stokes cracked him one right on the button, dropping the big defenseman. Flemmington was given the instigator penalty, but Stokes was ejected for being an aggressor for the late punch. “Stokesy told us that the referee did say “that’s it”, but that he had also said it a couple other times before then and the other guy kept punching, so that’s why he threw the last punch,” said Gilmour.
Kingston added insult to injury, scoring on the Flemmington instigator penalty, as Lebar squeaked a shot through the legs of Cullen for a 3-1 Kingston lead. The Sting, began to take the game over from that point on, as they would score four unanswered goals over the next two periods. Alex Galchenyuk riffled a shot from the side boards over the shoulder of Philipp Grubauer and Kerbashian scored to tie the game in the second period, while Tyler Peters scored 28 seconds into the third period, on a nice two on one feed from Nail Yakupov and then Yakupov struck for a goal himself with 2:57 left in the game, putting Sarnia up 5-3 and seemingly icing the game at that point.
However, the Fronts kept battling and pulled within a goal, when Taylor Doherty made a nice pass to Lebar, who chipped in his third of the night and the Fronts were down just one with 1:16 remaining. Ethan Werek got the tying goal, as Erik Gudbranson fired a point shot, that got deflected in front by Werek to lift the K-Rock Centre crowd into a frenzy, as the game headed for overtime.
In overtime, Peters was called for high-sticking and the Fronts went to the power play and did waste anytime, as Spooner snapped a laser over the glove hand of Cullen and off the crossbar and in, just 12 seconds into the power play, giving the Frontenacs the come from behind victory.
Kingston will now head out on the road next weekend, as they travel to Kitchener, Sarnia and London in a huge western conference road trip.
