Short Staffed Sting Fall To Whalers
Sarnia, ON – Friday night the Sting fell 4-3 to the visiting Plymouth Whalers however playing with 14 skaters instead of the standard 18 the Sting showed alot of heart in actually leading most of the way.
Not only were the Sting down to just 14 skaters but also playing as most teams do this time of the year without several key regulars.
Out for the Sting currently are; Matt Pelech (Camp), Chad Painchaud (Camp), Tomas Pospisil (Camp), Nick Tuzzolino (Camp), Jeff MacDougald (Injury), Trevor Solomon (Injury), Chris Chimienti (Injury), Kyle Tront (Injury), Shawn Futers (Injury) and Chris Gravelding (Injury).
In fact the Sting only dressed 3 defensemen for Fridays contest as veteran forward Micheal Haley moved back to serve as the 4th.
The Sting actually came flying out of the gates vs. the Whalers scoring twice on the powerplay before the game was 10 minutes old.
Jamie Fraser and Daniel Lombardi lit the lamp for the Sting who actually were outshooting the Whalers 8-0 up until the 6-minute mark of the first.
The Whalers would cut the lead to 1 before the period was over when James Neal beat Sting netminder Parker VanBuskirk who got his second straight start in net.
The second period would remain scoreless until late when Mark Lytwyn beat Whalers goaltender Ryan Nie with a snap shot high over Nie’s shoulder just underneath the cross bar giving the Sting their 2-goal lead back heading into the third.
In the third the Sting seemed to understandably so run out of gas.
The Whalers would connect 3 times within 3 minutes all on the powerplay to turn the game around.
Scoring for the Whalers were John Vigilante, Gino Piselini and James Neal with his 2nd and the eventual game winner.
Of note, all 7 goals in the game were scored on special teams.
The Sting had 2 powerplay and 1 shorthanded goals while all 4 Whaler tallies were on the powerplay.
The two teams get back at it Saturday night in Plymouth.
