Sarnia Puts Up Strong Effort, Falls Short Losing 4-3 In Shoot-Out
By Carl Chimenti
The Oshawa Generals scored twice in the shoot-out and escaped with a 4-3 win over the Sarnia Sting before 3,701, Friday night, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Sarnia played a sound game and came up with one valuable point for their effort. Tyson Doucette put the Sting up 3-2 with their first shot on net in the third period that came at 8:48. Oshawa was able to tie the game on a goal from Tyler O’Toole at 10:19 to send the game to a scoreless overtime before Beckett Sennecke (Anaheim Ducks) and Coby Barlow (Winnipeg Jets) scored in the shoot-out to win the game.
Alessandro Di Lorio scored his first career OHL goal and point for the Sting and was selected as the second star. Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) had a goal and an assist for Sarnia. Five different Sting players had an assist, Easton Wainwright, Ryan Brown, Kaeden Johnston, Beckham Edwards and Carter Kostuch.
Nick Surzycia came up with 33 saves on 36 shots with a number of those of the highlight variety.
Luca Marrelli (Columbus Blue Jackets) was the first star for Oshawa with a goal and an assist. Generals goaltender Isaac Gravelle picked up his first career OHL win with 25 saves and was named the third star. Oshawa out-shot Sarnia 36-28 but the Sting were better in the face-off dot by a 31-24 margin. The Generals scored the only power-play goal going 1/3 while the Sting went 0/4.
Sarnia will be back in action this Sunday afternoon at the hive (puck drop at 2:05 pm), against the Flint Firebirds.
In a scoreless first period which saw the Sting out-shoot the Generals 6-5, there was very few whistles and very few scoring chances on either side. Sarnia had a couple of power-plays chances to Oshawa’s one, but neither team could convert. Sarnia scored twice in the second period to grab a 2-1 lead after forty minutes of play. Wainwright left the puck for Fischer and he made a hard charge to the net scoring his second of the year at the eight-minute mark. Brown drew the second assist on the goal. Di Lorio finished off a three-way passing play to score his first career OHL goal and point. Johnston had the puck in the Generals end and he made a short pass to Fischer and from his back-hand, Fischer was able to get a shot on net and the rebound came to Di Lorio and he buried it past Gravelle at 10:39. Oshawa scored a late power-play goal from Tyler Graham at 18:03 from Owen Griffin and Luca D’Amato. The Generals out-shot the Sting 16-12. Surzycia was sharp in the period with a number of fine saves.