By DAVE BORODY

A tired and shorthanded Sarnia Sting team dropped a 7-3 decision to the Mississauga Steelheads, Saturday night in front of 2,933 fans at the RBC Centre.

The loss was Sarnia’s fourth straight in the Ontario Hockey League.

Sarnia also fell five points back of Plymouth in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Whalers scored a 4-3 win over the Belleville Bulls.

The Sting have 17 games remaining and Plymouth 18.

Playing their third game is three nights; the Sting had just 13 skaters, nine forwards and four defencemen.

They stuck with the Steelheads for almost two periods before fatigue and frustration set in, especially in the third period.

Mississauga led 1-0 after one period before the Sting bounced back to take a 2-1 lead 10 minutes into period two.

But the Steelheads would score the next five goals, including three in a span of just over three minutes late in the second period to go ahead 4-2 after 40 minutes. They took a commanding 6-2 lead with two goals midway through period three.

Sting head coach Trevor Letowski acknowledged the weekend was a tough one for his club.

“Tonight we were ready to play and came out with the right intentions. We had a 2-1 lead in the second period and really needed to get that third one. But Mississauga responded with three quick goals. Their third goal to take the lead really hurt.”

He added, “We ran out of gas in the third period. For the amount of players we had, we showed a lot of fight in the first and second periods. But we came up short.”

Adding to all the adversity of injuries and suspended players, Letowski chose to make Anthony DeAngelo a healthy scratch.

“It was for disciplinary reasons. It was my decision and I don’t regret it even though it made has shorthanded. Our team has faced a lot of adversity lately, both mentally and physically. We are grinding right now.”

Nikolay Goldobin (34^th), Nick Latta (30^th) and Daniel Nikandrov (8^th) accounted for the Sting scoring.

Bryson Cianfrone led Mississauga with two goals and two assists and was named the game’s first star. Nathan Bastian, Artem Rasulov, Stefan LeBlanc, Brett Foy and Nick Zottl had one goal each.

Mississauga finished with a 38-24 edge in shots on goal, including 12-4 in the third period. Spencer Martin was the winning goalie while Taylor Dupuis took the loss.

The Steelheads had two power play goals while Sarnia did not score on four power play chances. But two of the three Sting goals came while they were shorthanded.

The Sting hope to get a few players back next weekend when they go on the road for three straight games. It begins next Friday in Ottawa while they play Saturday in Belleville and Sunday afternoon in Kingston.

The next home game for Sarnia is Feb. 13^th when they host the London Knights at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

Tickets for that game and all remaining home games for the Sting are on sale daily at the RBC Centre Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com

Sarnia has just nine home games left in the regular season.

 

 

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