O’Reilly’s Five Point Night Powers Kitchener Past Sarnia 6-3
By Carl Chimenti
Sam O’Reilly (Tampa Bay Lightning) had a big night scoring twice and adding three assists and the Kitchener Rangers (43-12-4-2) took over the best record in the OHL, beating the Sarnia Sting (18-35-7-1) 6-3 Wednesday night, in front of 2,971, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena. For his effort O’Reilly was named the first star.
Sting forward Beckham Edwards had a solid night as well with two goals, his 17th and 18th on the season. Edwards was the second star. Kitchener’s Cameron Arquette was the third star with a goal and three assists.
For the Sting rookie Brenner Lammens had a goal (9th) and an assist. Patrick Quinlan, Jack Van Volsen, Tyler Challenger and Mitch Young had single helpers. Beckham Edwards first goal was his second short-handed tally this season, and the ninth overall for the Sting.
In net Patrick Quinlan was terrific for Sarnia stopping 26 of 31 including, his best two saves which came in the third period on a skate save and followed that up moments later on a left pad save, robbing Arquette twice. Jack Pridham (Chicago Blackhawks) scored two for the Rangers and Dylan Edwards added a goal and an assist.
Jason Schaubel turned away 17 of 20 shots for Kitchener. The Rangers out-shot the Sting 32-20, but Sarnia was better on the face-offs 30-27. The Sting scored the lone power-play goal of the game, as they went 1/3, with the Rangers failing to score on three chances.
A good first period from the Sting, even though the Rangers finished with a 2-1 lead on a late short-handed goal from Pridham, which came at 19:11. O’Reilly and Matthew Andonovski (Ottawa Senators) assisted on the goal.
The Rangers scored first on a nice set-up, as Cameron Arquette sent a pass to O’Reilly, driving towards the net and he was able to tip the puck past Quinlan at 8:10. Former Sting Carson Campbell drew the second assist.
Sarnia tied the game at 16:29. Young, following a nice save from Quinlan, sent a pass to Lammens, who was just out of the penalty box and he went in alone to beat Schaubel. The Rangers led on the shot-clock 12-10.
Kitchener was the better team in the second period as they scored twice, and if it were not for Quinlan they could have broken the game open. Quinlan made three out-standing saves to keep the game close.
O’Reilly scored his second of the game early at 1:22. Dylan Edwards drew the lone assist. Beckham Edwards got that one back on a short-handed break-away goal at 4:55. Van Volsen set up the goal for the lone assist.
It was a period for the Edwards, as Dylan Edwards scored to put the Rangers up by a pair of goals at 6:50 entering the third period. Both Arquette and O’Reilly assisted. Kitchener out-shot Sarnia 11-4.
