Sting Slip in Third, London Take the Extra Point
By Carl Chimenti
Ryan Winterton scored at 2:43 in overtime to cap a wild comeback as the London Knights (38-14-1-0) beat the Sarnia Sting (28-17-5-2) 4-3 before a large crowd of 4,336, Saturday night at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Sarnia took three of a possible four points this weekend with a win in London on Friday night and an overtime loss here in game four of the Finch Ford-Lincoln Battle of the 402.
The Knights scored three times in the third period. Max McCue (San Jose Sharks), George Diaco and Ethan MacKinnon with the equalizer at 16:54, scored to tie the game 3-3 and send it to the extra frame.
Christan Kyrou (Dallas Stars), Sandis Vilmanis (Florida Panthers) and Zach Filak scored for the Sting with all three goals coming in the first period. Nolan Burke (Nashville Predators) had a pair of assists and Ryan Mast (Boston Bruins) had one assist.
The three stars of the game featured both goaltenders and Winterton who was named as the third star. Sting goaltender Ben Gaudreau (San Jose Sharks) with 34 saves on 38 shots was the second star and Knights goaltender Zach Bowen who stopped 30 of 33 shots was selected as the first star.
London overall out-shot Sarnia 38-33. The Sting were 1/3 on the power-play, while the Knights were blanked in both of their man-advantage opportunities.
Sarnia jumped all over London scoring three first period goals. Kyrou opened the scoring on the power-play at 5:34 taking a pass from Burke and he scored from his back-hand on the stick side of Knights goaltender Zach Bowen. The Sting made it 2-0 on a highlight reel goal from Vilmanis, who blocked a shot from inside his own blue-line and then was able to retrieve the puck and he skated the length of the ice beating a would be Knight defender before putting the puck past Bowen from his back-hand to cap a spectacular unassisted goal at 10:33. Filak made it 3-0 putting the puck in the back of the net off a nice rebound in front. The shot came from a bad angle off the stick of Mast after he was set up from Burke. The goal came at 15:36. Sarnia out-shot London 10-9 and scored on their only opportunity with the man-advantage.
London out-shot Sarnia 13-10 in a scoreless second period. The Knights had the territorial edge but Gaudreau was the difference making timely saves when needed. Both teams failed to convert on their only power-play opportunity.
