Sting fall to Peterborough

By DAVE BORODY
PETERBOROUGH – We had too many passengers tonight.”
Those were the words of Sarnia Sting head coach Dave MacQueen after watching his team drop a 7-3decision to the Peterborough Petes,Thursday night before 3,177 fans at the Peterborough Memorial Centre.
The loss was Sarnia’s fourth in five games as they dropped back to the .500 mark overall with a 10-10-1-0 record in the Ontario Hockey League.
The Sting never led in the game falling behind 2-1 after the first period and 5–2 after 40 minutes.
We had only three or four guys competing hard tonight,” continued MacQueen. We were outworked and outhustled. We lost all the one-on-one battles.”
He added, the bread and butter of our team is our blueline and when they struggled like they did tonight, we are a very, very average hockey team. When our defence doesn’t play well, it seems to snowball to the forwards. We need to be better.”
MacQueen is concerned about is team’s mental preparation before the game.
We had someone come to practice yesterday and talk about being prepared to play as some of our first periods have not been very good this year. So what happens, we come out dead flat to start the game. You have to be mentally prepared to play. It’s something you can’t teach.”
The Petes carried the play in the opening period outshooting Sarnia 12-1 in the first 10 minutes. They were rewarded with a goal at 11:12 when Matt Puempel tipped in a goalmouth pass.
The Sting argued the fact the puck hit the net above the glass behind the Sting goal seconds earlier, but neither the referee or two linesmen blew the play dead. Video showed the puck did go out of play.
Sarnia held a two-man advantage for a minute and 27 seconds, but managed just three shots on goal.
But the Sting tied the game at 17:40 when Tyler Peters notched his sixth goal of the year. He took a centering pass from Ron Soucie and fired a low shot past Petes goalie Jason Missiaen.
Peterborough regained the lead with 18.6 seconds left in the period on a power play when Ryan Spooner drilled home a shot from the slot past goalie Adam Courchaine.
The Petes scored a pair of goals three minutes apart in the second period to open up a 4-1 lead. Joey West scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 7:43 knocking in his own rebound while Jamie Doornbosch converted a passout at 10:31
The Sting got back in the game at 15:44 when Brandon Alderson scored his seventh goal of the year finishing off a goalmouth pass from Kale Kerbashian.
But the Sting gave that goal back at 18:48 when Jack Walchessen scored for the Petes as the Sting just couldn’t clear the puck out of their own end.
The teams traded goals early in the third period as West made it 6-2 at the 48-second mark banking a passout off a Sting defenceman’s skate.
Brandon Francisco scored his second of the year for Sarnia at 1:21 when he rifled home a wrist shot off a face-off.
Puempel scored into an open net for the Petes in the final minute to complete the scoring.
Peterbourgh held a 43-36 edge in shots on goal.
Alderson said the Sting’s poor first period carried over the rest of the game.
We had a bad first period and it really put us in a hole. We need to be better defensively. Peterborough has a big defence, but they are a grinding team and didn’t do anything special against us.”
The Sting resume action Friday when they play in Ottawa against the 67s beginning at 7:30 p.m. Sarnia will be in Kingston Sunday afternoon to battle the Frontenacs starting at 2 p.m.
I want to see our team compete,” said MacQueen, when asked about the Ottawa game. There’s no excuse not to work. It seems there are some guys on this team work whenever they want to. They score a goal and figure that’s it. It takes more than that. You have to work hard at both ends of the rink.
STING NOTES
– Only two of the 10 teams in the Eastern Conference have a record above .500. In the Western Conference, there are seven teams with a winning record.
– Scratches for the Sting last night included Craig Hottot (broken jaw), and Daniel Broussard (serving the fourth of a five-game suspension).
– Kale Kerbashian had one assist for the Sting to extend his points-scoring streak to six games.
– Sting forward Brett Appio left the game after the second period with a lower body injury. Sarnia began the game with 19 players, one under the limit.
– Sarnia dropped under the .500 mark on the road to 5-6-0-0.
– Peterborough was one-for-three on the power play and Sarnia zero-for-four.


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