Sting Swarm The Soo, Win 6th Straight Game
By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting (25-14-4-2) scored six goals in the second period to blow out the Soo Greyhounds (14-21-7-5) 12-1, before a large Friday night crowd of 3,614, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The win was the sixth in a row for the Sting as they jumped over the idle Owen Sound Attack for third place in the Western Conference.
The twelve goals were the second highest goal total in the OHL, one less than the season high which the Sudbury Wolves scored in a 13-2 win over Niagara Ice Dogs on December 4th, 2022.
Sasha Pastujov (Anaheim Ducks) had a five-point game that included a goal to lead the scoring parade and was named the third star.
Luca DelBelBelluz (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Ty Voit (Toronto Maple Leafs) scored a hat-trick each as part of a four-point night for both players. The four points for Voit put him back in a tie for the OHL scoring lead with Windsor Spitfire Matthew Maggio with 71 points. For their efforts DelBelBelluz was the first star and Voit the second star,
In total Sarnia had a season high nine players with multiple points in the contest. Marko Sikic had two goals and an assist, Cooper Way and Nolan Burke (Nashville Predators) one goal and an assist each, while Nolan Dillingham, Easton Wainwright and Ethan Ritchie contributed two assists each.
Brenden Anderson scored his first goal as a member of the Sting and Ryan Mast (Boston Bruins), Ethan Del Mastro (Chicago Black Hawks), Zach Filak and Marcus Limpar-Lantz all had a single assist each.
Goaltender Ben Gaudreau (San Jose Sharks) turned aside 28 of 29 shots as the Sting overall out-shot the Greyhounds 38-29.
For the second straight game Sarnia netted three power-play goals.
Sarnia dominated the first period scoring three goals and out-shooting the Soo 13-9. Dillingham set up the first goal with a pass to Sikic, who let go a blast from the right side scoring his 8th of the season at 10:09. The second Sting goal was a result of a nice three-way tic-tac-toe passing play with the goal coming at 13:46. Mast feed a cross-ice pass to Wainwright and he found Way down low in front and Way lit the lamp for the 9th time, slipping the puck past goalie Landon Miller. Dillingham notched his second assist of the period, setting up the third goal with a long-stretch pass to DeBelBeluz and he broke in alone and beat Miller five hole with his 24th of the season, in the final minute at 19:47.
The Sting exploded for six goals in the second period, two on the power-play as they took a 9-1 advantage into the dressing room. The Greyhounds scored first on a goal from Kalvyn Watson at 4:49 and then the flood gates opened as Sikic his 9th and second of the game at 5:13. Ty Voit scored the next two his 13th on the power-play and 14th at 12:32 and 14:23 respectively. DelBelBelluz tallied his second of the game and 25th of the season at 15:49 on the power-play. Burke and Pastujov than scored 23 seconds apart to finish off the barrage. The final two goals scored at 19:35 and 19:58 respectively.
