By DAVE BORODY

Finally, some smiling faces could be seen around the RBC Centre Saturday night.

That’s because the Sarnia Sting ended a long, 11-game losing streak with a solid 6-1 victory over the Ottawa 67s in front of a nice crowd of 3,579 energetic fans.

The last Sting win was away back on Jan. 25^th against the Plymouth Whalers. Their last home win was Jan. 10^th, against the Whalers.

“Yea, that’s a monkey off our backs,” said Sting head coach Trevor Letowski. “It’s been hard. We’ve faced a lot of adversity with our numbers. When adversity hits, it’s hard to keep the players up. We stuck to the program tonight and that means a lot to me.”

The Sting dominated the game taking a 1-0 lead after the first period and extended their lead to 3-0 after 40 minutes.

The only sour note came when Sting goalie Brodie Barrick lost his bid for his first-ever Ontario Hockey League shutout when Ottawa scored with 5.6 seconds remaining.

Letowski was happy with his entire roster, which included 15 skaters.

“We had a great effort from everybody. Everyone knows we’ve been struggling and grinding over the past month or so. But we felt as a coaching staff, we knew a win was coming. Ottawa is a desperate team and are right on the edge of being in the playoffs. We don’t have that same built-in motivation.”

Defenceman Anthony DeAngelo returned to the lineup after serving an eight-game suspension. He responded with two goals and one assist.

“Anthony was outstanding tonight,” said Letowski. “He’s been through a lot, but he needed to respond. He made the smart plays, played solid hockey and had a three-point game.”

The Sting scored the only goal of period one when Nick Latta tipped in a centering pass from Hayden Hodgson for his 32^nd goal of the season.

Sarnia added a pair of goals in period two. Davis Brown notched his 14^th of the year at 12:04 while Brandon Lindberg scored his second of the year on a shorthanded breakaway with 18.5 seconds left.

The Sting blew the game open in the third period.

Noah Bushnell scored his sixth of the year at 2:29 while DeAngelo notched a pair at 11:44 and with 25.8 seconds remaining. DeAngelo now has 15 goals on the season.

John Urbanic ruined Barrick’s shutout bid with 5.6 seconds left. Barrick got a piece of Uniac’s shot from the slot, but the puck had enough steam to just trickle over the line.

Sarnia finished with a 31-27 edge in shots on goal with Phillippe Trudeau the losing goalie.

The Sting was zero-for-three on the power play and Ottawa zero-for-four.

Next action for the Sting is Sunday afternoon in Windsor against the Spitfires. They return home next weekend for a pair of games as they host the Erie Otters Friday night at the Peterborough Petes Saturday night.

Both games begin at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

Tickets for all remaining home games are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going inline at Sarniasting.com

Barrick was the game’s first star with Lindberg second star and Hodgson third star. Jimmy McDowell was Sarnia’s hardest working player of the game.

Fans were so joyous they did the wave for several minutes in the third period.

 

Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.