Alberga Leads the Sting Past the Greyhounds
By DAVE BORODY
When you are hot, you are hot.
In the case of Sarnia Sting forward Domenic Alberga, he’s on fire.
After his first career hat trick a week ago against Mississauga, Alberga followed that up Thursday night with his first ever four-point game.
Alberga scored two goals and added two assists in leading the Sting to an important 6-4 win over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in front of 2,785 fans at the RBC Centre.
The win was Sarnia’s third straight and moved them back into fourth place in the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League, two points up on Owen Sound and six behind third place Kitchener.
“Yeah, this is the first time I’ve had four points in a game,” smiled Alberga, who was the game’s first star. “Right now it’s a case of having good chemistry with my linemates. We know where each other are.”
The line of Alberga, Craig Hottot and Nick Latta combined for 10 points as Hottot and Latta each had a goal and two assists, with Latta scoring what turned out to be the winning goal.
“We know we are the third line,” said Alberga. “But we are also an energy line. Jacques (Beaulieu) also gave me the task of shutting down Nick Cousins. I enjoy that role covering a player like him. But when you score against him, it’s even better.”
Beaulieu liked what he saw from the threesome.
“Alberga is on a mission. He’s accepted his role. They made one mistake on a goal, but overall all three were very good. They are responsible and we expect them to play defence. But when you play well defensively, you are going to get good offensive chances and that’s what they did tonight.”
The Sting trailed 2-1 after the first period before rebounding to take a 3-2 advantage after two periods. A wild third period saw five goals scored between the teams in a span of 10 minutes. Twice the game was tied at 3-3 and 4-4 before Sarnia scored the final two.
“They were a desperate hockey team and we knew that,” said Beaulieu. “I thought we were really good from the top of the circles down. We cycled the puck well and got some good scoring chances. We had a couple of bad breaks on two of their goals. You never want to give up four goals in game. That won’t win in the playoffs. One thing we didn’t give up was many shots.”
Sarnia outshot the Greyhounds 40-27 overall, but it was 29-13 in Sarnia’s favour after two periods.
“We showed those long passes on tape before the game, but we didn’t get it,” said Beaulieu. “Our goalie (J.P. Anderson) made three really big stops for us stopping three breakaways and got the job done for us.”
After Anderson stopped his first breakaway just over a minute into the game, Sarnia took a 1-0 lead at 1:21 when Alberga wristed a shot past Greyhounds goalie Jack Campbell from the face-off circle.
Sault Ste. Marie responded with a pair of goals as Carson Dubchak scored on a deflection at 4:46 while Cousins took advantage of a Sting giveaway in their own end at 9:53.
Sarnia tied the game 51 seconds into period two when Ludvig Rensfeldt took a pass from Charlie Sarault and snapped a shot past Campbell. It was Rensfeldt’s 11th of the year and first since returning from the world juniors.
Anderson was then forced to stop two more breakaways, one off the stick of Cousins while the Greyhounds were shorthanded.
The Sting went ahead 3-2 with two minutes remaining in the period when Brett Thompson scored his team-high 24th goal of the season deflecting home a Connor Murphy point shot.
The Greyhounds tied the game just over a minute in period three on a goal from Brett Findlay. Sarnia regained the lead at 4:08 as Alberga notched his second of the night and 10th of the year on a slapshot.
But a minute later Sault Ste. Marie squared matters at 4-4 as Dylan Staples poked home a loose puck.
The eventual winning goal came 62 seconds later as Latta deflected a pass from Hottot with the puck just making it over the goal line. It was Latta’s fourth goal of the year.
Hottot added an insurance marker at 10:32 with a high wrist shot, his 15th of the year.
Alberga says the success of the third line is knowing where his linemates are.
“We talk a lot. Not only in the games, but also and practice and in the room. We also like to throw bodies around and cause turnovers. Lately we’ve been able to capitalize on our scoring chances.”
He added, “J.P. (Anderson) stood on his head and made some key saves for us. We fired a lot of puck to the net. We also created turnovers in the neutral zone.”
The Sting returns to action Friday night when they host the Windsor Spitfires beginning at 7:05 p.m. It will be their last home game for two weeks.
Tickets are on sale at the RBC Box Office or by calling 519-541-1717. Fans can also go online for tickets at Sarniasting.com
STING NOTES
– Alberga was first star with Hottot second star and Rensfeldt third star. Latta was named the Dickies hardest working player of the game.
– Sarnia’s overall record improved 23-16-1-4 while they are now 17-0-0-0 when leading after two periods.
– Sault Ste. Marie has lost 11 of their last 12 games. They are 3-16-0-0 when trailing after 40 minutes.
– Sarault’s assist gives him 52 on the season, tops in the league.
– Ex-Sting defenceman Dan Watson was at the game. He played for Sarnia between 1996-99. He is now an assistant coach with the Toledo Walleye of the East Coast Hockey League.
– Sarnia was zero-for-four with the man advantage while Sault Ste. Marie failed to score on their lone power play of the night.
– Sarnia holds a 3-2 lead over Sault Ste. Marie in their eight-game season series.
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.
