Maxwell Shuts the Door on the Attack
By DAVE BORODY
Photos by Metcalfe Photography
Another stellar performance by goalie Brandon Maxwell powered the Sarnia Sting to a 5-3 win over the Owen Sound Attack, Friday night in front of 2,972 fans at the RBC Centre.
The win was Sarnia’s second straight and improved their overall record to 20-9-1-4 in the Ontario Hockey League.
Maxwell turned aside 40 of 43 shots he faced making a number of quality stops. Owen Sound outshot Sarnia 43-26 overall, including 21-4 in the third period.
“As a goalie if you don’t want lots of shots you shouldn’t play,” said Maxwell, when asked about the number of shots he faced. “Tonight we capitalized when we needed to. We were missing bodies again, but did what we needed to win.”
Maxwell, who was the game’s first star, says the team is winning games despite missing seven regulars out of the lineup.
“We are following the coaches game plan. When we do that we are successful. When we don’t, we have problems. We’ve been assisted with the Legionnaires players who have come up. They’ve kept it simple and been a big help.”
“Maxwell stood tall for us like he’s done all year,” said Sting head coach Jacques Beaulieu. “He’s square (to the shooter) and there’s not a lot of moving parts. He’s a seasoned goalie. He’s big in this league four years and knows how to play the game.”
The Sting jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead and held what appeared to be a commanding 5-1 advantage after 40 minutes. But the Attack controlled the game in the third period and made a game of it.
“We played well for two periods and then watched Owen Sound in the third period. We had a short bench again and there’s guys playing a lot of minutes they aren’t used to. They get tired and then we get stuck on our own end. It’s going to happen. But we got some timely scoring, our power play was pretty good and we got goals when we needed them.”
Sarnia opened the scoring at 4:18 on the power play when Brett Thompson fired a wrist shot over the shoulder of Attack goalie Jordan Binnington from close range. Reid Boucher put the Sting up 2-0 at 17:33 when he whistled home a low wrist shot from the sideboards.
Boucher got his second of the night and 19th of the season early in the second period on a high slapshot from the left point.
After Gemel Smith of the Attack cut the lead to 3-1 at 3:33 of the play, the Sting line of Thompson, Sarault and Nail Yakupov took over.
Thompson scored his second of the game and 20th of the year at 14:49 when he backhanded home a rebound with Sarault and Yakupov picking up assists. Thompson has 15 goals in 17 games since joining the Sting.
Yakupov then notched his 20th of the year. He took a centering pass from Thompson and sent home a quick wrist shot. (Yakupov had two breakaways earlier in the period, but shot wide both times).
“I tell you, the Sarnia fans should be coming out and watching this guy,” said Beaulieu, when asked about Yakupov. “He’s worth every penny. He’s a very special player and the best one I’ve ever been a part of in junior hockey.”
Yakupov will likely play Saturday night in Erie before leaving early Sunday to join Team Russia for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Tournament.
The Attack controlled the play in the third period and were rewarded with two goals, one by Jay Gilbert on a power play at 3:44 while Keevin Cutting scored at 14:47.
But Maxwell shut the door the rest of the way.
The Sting play two road games this weekend before the Christmas break. They travel to Erie Saturday night to take on the Otters while they are in Brampton Sunday afternoon to battle the Battalion.
“They (Erie) showed us how to play the last time we played them,” said Maxwell. “I think we have something to prove.”
The Otters stunned the Sting 7-3 at the RBC Centre just over a week ago.
The Sting is idle until Dec. 28th when they are at Sault Ste. Marie. They play in London Dec.30th before hosting London on Jan. 1 at 2 p.m.
STING NOTES
– Maxwell was first star while Thompson (two goals and one assist) second star and Michael Halmo of the Attack third star. Craig Hottot of the Sting was the Dickies hardest-working player.
– Maxwell has now played 1,561 minutes in goal for the Sting and sports a 17-8-1-2 record. He has a 2.96 goals against average.
– Boucher also finished the night with three points on two goals and one assist for the Sting.
– Sarnia’s home record improved to 11-4-1-3.
– Sarnia was missing seven regulars. They included Ryan Kujawinski, Brett Ritchie, Alex Basso, Connor Murphy, Nick Latta, Ludvig Rensfeldt and Alex Galchenyuk.
– Murphy, who just got into the lineup for the first time this season last weekend, took a hard check into the boards in the third period of the Peterborough game and has a sore neck.
– Three members of the Sarnia Legionnaires and one Strathroy Rockets player were in the Sting lineup.
– Sarnia was one-for-five on the power play and Owen Sound two-for-five.
– Owen Sound and Sarnia have split two games so far this season with two more to go.
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.
