Sarnia Puts Up A Workman Like Effort To Beat Windsor 5-1 In Exhibition Play
By Carl Chimenti
It was a nostalgic night as The Sarnia Sting made a triumphant return back to where it all began at the Brock Street Barn, now known as the Pat Stapleton Arena, as part of their year-long celebration to commemorative 30 years of Sarnia Sting hockey, beating the Windsor Spitfires 5-1 in front of a large gathering of 1,215. The win was Sarnia’s second in three pre-season games.
The Sting will wrap up the home portion on Friday night (7:05 puck drop) at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena against the Flint Firebirds and finishing off the exhibition slate on the road Saturday night in Windsor VS the Spitfires.
Tonight’s game was a defensive gem by the Sting as they stymied the Spits by limiting their time and space with a relentless forecheck that kept Windsor off balance throughout the contest. Nicholas Surzycia started in net for Sarnia, stopping all but one of the 22 shots he faced in 40 minutes of play. Logan Phillips, making his OHL debut, came on in the third period and turned aside all six shots he faced. Sarnia swept the three-star selections as Zach Filak was named the first star after a three-point night (1-2-3), followed by Lukas Fischer, the second star, with a pair of assists and newly acquired Daylen Moses, from the Soo Greyhounds, who saw his first action as a member of the Sarnia Sting, paying quick dividends with two assists and was selected as the third star.
2023 first round (17th overall) Ryan Brown continued his sparkling play in the pre-season with a goal and an assist. Brown leads the team in goals with three and has five points in three games. Andrew LeBlanc scored twice and Mitch Young once for the Sting. Cooper Way and Sean Doherty contributed one assist each. Windsor out-shot Sarnia 28-27. On the power-play Sarnia was 2/3 and Windsor 1/3. The first period featured three power-play goals, two from Sarnia, as the Sting grabbed a 2-1 lead after twenty minutes of play. Filak opened the scoring at 7:07, picking up his second goal of the pre-season, making a highlight reel move and followed that up with a great shot that beat Windsor goalie Ian Michelone. Both Fischer and Brown assisted on the goal. The Sting made two straight with the man-advantage as Brown exploded of the half wall and let go a shot that beat Michelone on the blocker side, over his shoulder. Filak and Fischer drew the assists. Greentree scored the lone goal for Windsor at 18:28 on the power-play from Carson Woodall and Jacob Maillet.
The Spitfires out-shot Sarnia 12-11. The second period was a great defensive effort by the Sting as they limited Windsor to just 10 shots on goal which included some strong but painful shot blocking from the penalty kill unit. The Sting managed only six shots on net, but two went in, to increase their lead to 4-1 after forty minutes. LeBlanc made it 3-1 on an even strength goal just 40 seconds in, after receiving a great set-up pass from Moses on his back-hand. Filak also assisted on the scoring play. At 14:49, Mitch Young found the back of the net, pinching in from the blue-line and taking a nice feed from Doherty.
