Papineau stops 35 in Saturday loss to Steelheads
Photo: Charles Warburton
Brampton, Ont. – The Saginaw Spirit took on the Brampton Steelheads at the CAA Centre for their first meeting of the season on Saturday night. Nikita Klepov scored his 16th goal of the season for the Spirit while Kaleb Papineau stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced. Brampton’s Joshua Avery had a three-point game with two goals and an assist.
Avery opened the scoring, picking up his seventh goal of the season on a five-on-three power play for the Steelheads. Avery fired a one-timer from the right circle with the setup pass coming from Jakub Fibigr. Troy Patton picked up the secondary assist as the Steelheads took a 1-0 lead at 5:13.
The Spirit responded on their own two-man advantage with Nikita Klepov scoring on the one timer from the right circle. Levi Harper picked up the primary assist, and Egor Barabanov picked up the secondary assist to tie the game at 1-1 at 13:06.
The Steelheads took back the lead after Keaton Ardagh sent a bouncing puck past Kaleb Papineau’s blocker for his sixth goal of the season. Joshua Avery picked up his second point of the game with the assist as the Steelheads led 2-1 at 15:15.
After 1: SAG 1 – 2 BRAM (Total Shots: 9 – 12)
The Spirit and the Steelheads went scoreless in the second, with Saginaw goaltender Kaleb Papineau stopping 15 of 15 and the Steelheads’ goaltender Luke Johnson stopping each of the three shots he faced.
After 2: SAG 1 – 2 BRAM (2nd period shots: 3 – 15 Total shots: 12 – 27)
16:20 into the third, Joshua Avery picked up his second goal of the game after the Steelheads capitalized on a turnover in front of the net. Kieran Witkowski picked up the assist to extend Brampton’s lead to two late in the third period.
With 1:30 left in the game, Kieran Witkowski picked up his second point with an empty net goal. Parker Von Richter picked up the assist as the Steelheads won at home 4-1.
Final: SAG 1 – 4 BRAM (3rd period shots 13 – 12, Total shots 25 – 39)
Powerplays SAG 1/3 BRAM 1/4
Goaltenders: SAG: Kaleb Papineau (35 saves, 38 shots) BRAM: Luke Johnson (24 saves, 25 shots)
The Spirit play next Friday, December 12th, against the London Knights at Canada Life Place. Puck drop is at 7:00pm.
