Sarnia Wraps Up Pre-Season Beating London 5-3
By Carl Chimenti
Easton Wainwright, Alessandro Di lorio, Tyson Doucette and Ruslan Karimov contributed a goal and an assist each, as the Sarnia Sting wrapped up the pre-season with a 2-2-1 record, beating the London Knights 5-3, in front of a Saturday night home crowd of 3,104, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Karimov, the Sarnia Sting first round (6th overall) selection, in the 2024 CHL Import Draft, made his debut in a Sting uniform with a two point effort, scoring the final Sting goal with 15 seconds (19:45), to go to secure the win. Karimov had a total of four shots on goal and was a +2. Sarnia scored three in the first. Wainwright opened up the scoring with his second goal of the pre-season, just 47 seconds into the contest. Di lorio made it 2-0 with his third goal at 11:01, from Ryan Brown and Karimov. The third and final goal of the opening period came at 13:49 as Tyson Doucette notched his first of the pre-season from JJ Franceschetti and Wainwright. The Sting out-shot the Knights 14-7.
In the second period Mitch Young scored his first at 15:57 from Di lorio and Doucette. London mounted their come-back bid scoring three straight, which included a late goal at 19:24 from Henry Brzustewicz, unassisted to wrap up the middle stanza scoring. Sarnia out-shot London 7-6.
In the third period, Rene Van Bommel scored twice at 1:27 and again at 12:26 (shorthanded) to make things close, but the Sting prevailed, as Karimov scored the insurance goal from Barr. For the second straight game Barr added a pair of assist. Sarnia overall was the better team in the shot clock 26-19, and in the face-off circle 38-20. Nick Surzycia went the distance in net for the Sting stopping 16 of 19 shots in goal. Both teams failed to score with the man-advantage, London 0/2 and Sarnia 0/5. This was the first pre-season game in which the Sting failed to score on the power-play after going 8/25 in their previous four games.
Sarnia will open up the 2024-25 regular season at home next Friday night (Sept. 27th) against the Windsor Spitfires, followed by their first road game the next night against the defending Memorial Cup champs Saginaw Spirit.
