Penalties costly for Sting
By DAVE BORODY
SAULT STE. MARIE – Penalties proved costly for the Sarnia Sting on Wednesday night.
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds scored four power play goals on their way to an 8-3 victory over the Sting in front of 4,088 fans at the Essar Centre.
The loss dropped Sarnia’s record to 4-8-0-1 in the Ontario Hockey League while the Greyhounds improved to 9-1-0-2.
Sting head coach, Trevor Letowski said before the game his team faced a tough challenge against the upstart Greyhounds, who are off to a quick start this season. Letowski added it is always tough to play at the Essar Centre and he was certainly right about that.
Even though the Sting was outshot 16-8 in period one, the teams went to the dressing room tied at 1-1.
Michael Bunting scored for the Greyhounds at 17:43 while Sarnia tied it with only 3.4 seconds left on the clock. Nick Latta took what appeared to be a harmless shot from the point, but Bryan Moore redirected the puck into the top corner of the net.
The Sting jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second period scoring on their first two shots, 29 seconds apart.
Second round draft pick Noah Bushnell drilled a long slapshot past Greyhounds goalie Matt Murray at 3:47 while Moore scored his fifth goal of the season at 4:16. Moore took a pass from Nikolay Goldobin, cut around the defence and slipped a backhand under Moore. Nick Latta notched his second assist of the game.
Unfortunately things did not go well for the Sting after that.
The Greyhounds responded with seven unanswered goals. They scored three in the second period, two of them coming with the man advantage. Jorgen Katerud scored what proved to be the winning goal as he poked home a loose puck after a mad scramble around the net.
The Greyhounds put the game out of reach early in the third period with two quick goals at 2:24 and 5:52. They scored four in the final frame, two of them on the power play.
Sault Ste. Marie was four-for-eight on the power play and Sarnia zero-for-two.
Bunting led the Greyhounds with three goals, Katerud had two while Patrick Watling, Tyler Gaudet and Andrew Fritsch with singles.
Sault Ste. Marie peppered Sting goalie Taylor Dupuis with 47 shots. The Sting could muster only 22 at Matt Murray.
The Sting lost defenceman Tyler Hore late in the third period when he was handed a match penalty for cross-checking.
The Sting played without the services of forward Daniel Nikandrov, out with a lower body injury.
Sarnia’s road record is now 2-3-0-0 while Sault Ste. Marie is 5-0-0-1 on home ice.
The game was the first of six meetings between the two teams this season. In previous years the two clubs met eight teams, but that has changed with Brampton moving to North Bay this season.
The Sting will play two games this weekend. They host the Barrie Colts on Friday night at the RBC Centre with game time at 7:05 p.m. Sarnia travels to Plymouth on Saturday night to battle the Whalers.
Tickets for all remaining home games are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.
