Sting Hold Off Spits, Take 9-6 Win Saturday Night
By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting (34-17-5-3) scored eight goals in the final two periods and then held on to beat the Windsor Spitfires (38-16-4-2) 9-6, before a full house Saturday night at the WFCU Centre.
It was a wild offensive display as both teams made it rain goals combining for 15 goals, with 14 of those coming in the final two periods.
Going into the third period the Sting held what seemed to be a secure 5-2 lead before Windsor exploded for three straight goals to tie it up, but give Sarnia credit as they regrouped and found a way to win in the end.
Sasha Pastujov (Anaheim Ducks), Nolan Burke (Nashville Predators) and Christian Kyrou (Dallas Stars) all scored two goals each and Kyrou added an assist for a three-point night. Kyrou was voted as the number one star and Burke was selected as the third star.
Rodwin Dionicio was selected as the second star for Windsor, scoring a hat-trick as part of a four-point night.
Cooper Way (13th), Nolan Dillingham (5th) and Ty Voit (Toronto Maple Leafs) scored one goal each for the Sting. Voit also had an assist for a two-point game.
Luca DelBelBelluz (Columbus Blue Jackets), Ethan Del Mastro (Chicago Black Hawks) and Ethan Ritchie contributed a pair of assists each.
Nicholas Surzycia stopped 33 shots as the Spitfires out-shot Sarnia 39-30.
Sarnia was perfect on the power-play going two for two and has scored ten goals with the man-advantage in the last four games. Windsor went 1/5.
Windsor carried the play for most of the first period out-shooting Sarnia 16-10, but the Sting scored the only goal. Pastujov, who was parked at the side of the net received a pass from Voit and he lit the lamp for his 36th of the year at 18:24. Both Voit and Mast assisted on the goal. The Spitfires had the only power-play chance but failed to capitalize.
Things opened up in a wild second period that saw six goals combined. The two teams traded power-play goals as the Sting went up 2-0 on Pastujov’s second goal of the game and 37th of the season at 4:28 from Del Mastro and DelBelBelluz. Windsor broke through with a power-play goal from Rodwin Dionicio at 7:34 from Shane Wright (Seattle Kraken) and goaltender Mathias Onuska.
Kyrou restored the two-goal lead for Sarnia at 3-1 with yet another power-play goal, his 17th from Ritchie. Sarnia made it 4-1 as Way netted his 13th from Anderson and Sikic at 13:05. Twenty-three seconds later Voit with his 18th made it 5-1 with assist going to Kyrou at 13:28. Windsor made it 5-2 with the final goal of the crazy period at 15:35 as Dionicio scored his second goal of the period from Matthew Maggio (New York Islanders) and Anthony Cristoforo
