Sting routed at home
By DAVE BORODY
It was a tough loss for the Sarnia Sting Friday night.
The Sting blew a 5-1 lead and fell 8-5 to the Owen Sound Attack in front of 2,352 fans at the RBC Centre.
The Attack scored six unanswered goals in the third period to record the win and move four points ahead of Sarnia in the battle for sixth place in the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League.
Owen Sound also holds two games in hand over the Sting. Sarnia has just 12 games left in the regular season.
Sting head coach Trevor Letowski was visibly upset after the game.
“It makes you mad and it’s tough to take. We felt it was a must win. We had that team on their heels. It’s not acceptable.”
He added, “It’s embarrassing. It was our biggest game of the year to date. We executed our game plan for half the game. Then we got comfortable. Their second goal late in the second period gave them life. We took two undisciplined penalties in the third period and they scored both times. It’s 5-4 now and we are back on our heels.”
A couple of power play goals by the Sting in the opening period gave them a 2-1 advantage after 20 minutes.
Sarnia then scored three goals in a span of just under six minutes early in period two to take what appeared to be a commanding 5-1 lead.
They even chased the Attack’s starting netminder who allowed five goals on 18 shots.
But that late second period goal by Owen Sound Letowski talked about was a tough one. It came with only 45 seconds to go and the puck went off a Sarnia player and into the net.
Power play goals at 1:04 and 6:07 by the Attack pulled them to within a goal and they tied the game at 9:23. The eventual winning goal came at 16:40 while Owen Sound added a pair of empty net, shorthanded goals in the final minute.
Holden Cook scored two goals, including the winner for the Attack. Daniel Milne also had a pair of goals. Erik Bradford notched a goal and four assists while Ethan Szypula, Kyle Platzer and Zach Nastasiuk had one goal each. Defenceman Santino Centorame had four assists.
Daniel Nikandrov led the Sting offence with a goal, his 15th of the season along with two assists. Other scorers were Jakob Chychrun (13th), Nikita Korostelev (19th), Anthony Salinitri (7th) and Hayden Hodgson (18th). Jeff King added a pair of assists.
Owen Sound held a 34-30 edge in shots on goal. Taylor Dupuis took the loss. He stopped two breakaways in the third period. Jack Flinn was the winning goalie in relief of Michael McNivin.
The Sting finally had a full compliment of 20 players dressed for only the second time in two months.
Pavel Zacha returned after missing 13 games while Patrick White and Josh Defarias were back after missing the last seven games.
The Sting returns to action Saturday night when they travel to Plymouth to battle the Whalers. They are back home Sunday when they host their arch-rivals, the London Knights beginning at 4:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.
It is the final meeting of the regular season against one another.
Tickets for all remaining home games are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com
STING NOTES
– Bradford, who enjoyed a five-point game, was the first star with Nikandrov second star and Centorame of the Attack third star.
– Not dressed for Sarnia were Josh Chapman (suspended) and Davis Brown and Connor Schlichting, (both injured).
– Sarnia’s overall record stands at 25-24-4-3 and their home record 15-9-2-2.
– The Sting still hold a 2-1 record against the Attack with one more game to go, that coming on the second last day of the regular season in Owen Sound.
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.
