Knights edge Sting 3-2
By DAVE BORODY
LONDON – A power play goal midway through the third period provided the London Knights with a 3-2 win over the Sarnia Sting, Friday night in front of 9.096 fans at the John Labatt Centre.
The loss leaves the Sting still battling for fourth spot in the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League.
Sarnia has 73 points, Saginaw 72 and Owen Sound 71. All three teams have one game remaining.
Sarnia plays at Plymouth Saturday night, Saginaw is home to Kitchener while Owen Sound hosts Guelph.
The Sting can finish no lower than fifth because they have the advantage in tie-breaking formulas. Sarnia will play either Saginaw or Owen Sound in round one of the playoffs.
As for the London-Sarnia match, the game was close from start to finish as they teams were tied after the first period and 2-2 after the second.
Sting head coach Jacques Beaulieu could not fault his team’s effort.
“If we play like that all the time we will be in every game. We battled hard and competed hard and battled hard the entire game. I thought it was a heck of a junior game.”
He added, “We still need a point to give us home ice advantage in round one. We have a tough game in Plymouth, but we can’t take the pedal off the gas.”
For the second game in a row, Sarnia had a full compliment of 20 players dressed.
The Sting welcomed back overage defenceman Adrian Robertson who played his first game since Feb. 9th when he suffered a concussion. He had missed 16 games.
Only Nail Yakupov (concussion) and Jack Kuzmyk (sick) were not dressed. Sarnia has 240 man games lost this season due to injuries.
Yakupov missed his third straight game after being levelled by a check from Michael Halmo of the Owen Sound Attack last Saturday. Halmo was given a five-minute major for charging and game misconduct.
After being suspended indefinitely by the league earlier this week, the OHL announced Friday they have suspended Halmo for 10 games, (two regular season games and eight playoff matches.
It’s expected Yakupov will be ready to go for the first game of the playoffs next weekend.
But Sting forward Alex Galchenyuk left the game early in the second period after falling to the ice on a face-off in the Sting zone. Galchenyuk left the ice holding his shoulder and did not return.
Galchenyuk was playing in only his second game of the year after knee surgery sidelined him.
The teams traded goals in the opening period.
Robertson got the Sting off to a good start at 4:26 when he snapped a wrist shot over the shoulder of goalie Michael Houser from the face-off circle. It was Robertson’s 10th goal of the year. London tied the game at 16:12 when Chris Tierney finished off a two-on-one break for the Knights. It marked London’s first goal in three games.
Sarnia took a 2-1 lead at 4:48 of period two when Craig Hottot took a pass from Ryan Spooner and wristed a quick shot into the bottom of the net. It was Hottot’s 19th goal of the year.
But London tied the game on a power play at 6:12 when Max Domi fired a wrist shot over the shoulder of Sting goalie J.P. Anderson from the slot.
Connor Murphy had a great chance for the Sting five minutes into period three when he rang a shot from the point off the post.
London scored the winning goal at 9:46 with their second power play of the night when Jared Knight deflected home a point shot.
London was given a power play by referee Matt Parlette on a questionable cross-checking penalty to Hottot.
“”It was a questionable call. It appeared their guy jumped and got in his way. Both should have been penalized, their guy for interference and we play four-on-four. Tough call to make in a 2-2 game.”
Sarnia swarmed around the London goal in the final minute with Anderson on the bench for an extra attacker, but could not come up with the tying goal.
Each team finished with 32 shots on goal. London was two-for-two on the power play and Sarnia zero-for-three.
Robertson’s goal was his first of the year in a Sting uniform.
“It was on my second shift. Charlie Sarault made a great pass as he found me on the rush. I saw an opening on the short side and put it upstairs. It felt good.”
Robertson was happy to get back playing.
“I felt pretty good, I had a good week of conditioning so that wasn’t an issue. I was fighting the puck a bit early, but got better as the game went on.”
As for the game, Robertson said, “We played a pretty solid game. A few mistakes cost us two points. The effort was there and we deserved a better fate.”
Beaulieu was happy to see his big defenceman back on the ice.
“He played well for being off for such a long time, He played a lot of minutes tonight.”
STING NOTES
– Knight was first star with Tierney second star and Anderson of the Sting third star,
– London won four of six games between the two clubs this season.
– Sarnia’s overall record is now 33-27-2-5.
– Playoff tickets are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com
– There have been 415 man games lost in the OHL this season due to suspensions.
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.
