Sault Blank Shorthanded Sting

By DAVE BORODY
A shorthanded Sarnia Sting team fell 4-0 to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in Ontario Hockey League action, Thursday night before 2,761 fans at the RBC Centre.
The Sting began the game with only 16 skaters. Top scorer Kale Kerbashian has gone home to Thunder Bay due to the death of his grandmother while Miroslav Preisinger began serving the first of a two-game suspension picked up at the end of last Saturday’s game in Saginaw.
Also missing were Ben O’Quinn, Anthony Donati and Brent Sullivan all out with injuries.
By the end of the game three more players were heading for hospital for x-rays. Brett Ritchie stopped a slapshot with his right hand; Kyle Flemington hurt his hand in one of two fights while Jesse Stoughton took an open ice hit injuring his shoulder.
We knew we had to keep it tight to the vest with guys like Kale and Miro out of the lineup,” said Sting head coach Dave Mac Queen.
We needed to get a bounce here and there. After two periods I think the shots were something like 18-17 and yet we are down 3-0.
We made some mental errors defensively and gave up a couple of questionable goals. That’s basically the game.”
MacQueen recounted two occasions when those bounces needed to go the Sting’s way and didn’t.
In the first minute we had good puck movement and Brett Ritchie rings a shot of the post. Later on Brandon Alderson showed great patience, holding the puck and waiting for the goalie to go down, but couldn’t put the puck over him. Chances like that have to go in the net for us to have a chance. We score a goal there, we find some life and who knows what happens.”
MacQueen added, they had seven power plays and we had only two. The only power play they got was late in the game. But you aren’t going to win games killing that many penalties, especially with a short bench. For the bench we had tonight we did some good things. That’s a team fighting for fourth place and they weren’t dominating us.”
Robin Lehner faced only 20 shots to record the shutout for the Greyhounds. Shayne Campbell faced 24 shots in the Sting goal.
Jordan Nolan opened the scoring for the Greyhounds at 14:15 of period one when his long wrist shot deflected off the post and past Campbell. Trevor Morbeck increased the lead to 2-0 53 seconds later knocking in a rebound.
The Greyhounds had only four shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Brett Thompson scored the only goal of the second period at 14:37 when he deflected a pass through the legs of Campbell. Vern Cooper completed the scoring at 17:20 of period three on a power play.
The Sting is on the road tonight in Guelph against the Storm before returning home Saturday night to host the London Knights at 7:35 p.m. at the RBC Centre.
STING NOTES
– Nolan was first star with Cooper second star and Lehner third star.
– The Greyhounds won seven of eight meetings between the two teams this season.
– The Sting Booster Club presented a cheque to Lambton AAA Minor Hockey for $24,000.
– Saturday’s game with London is Fan Appreciation Night. There will be a number of special prizes along with a post-game skate, sponsored by Bell. There will also be a free team poster for all fans.
– – Sarnia has lost six in a row.




Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers games both home and away for the Sting Website.