Beamish Scores Hat-Trick As Sarnia Beats Guelph 5-1
By Carl Chimenti
Liam Beamish scored three goals and Nick Surzycia stopped 34 of 35 shots as the Sarnia Sting (21-27-5-7) swept the home and home series beating the Guelph Storm (18-32-5-4), 5-1 Friday night at the Sleeman Centre. Beamish became the second Sting player to score a hat-trick this season (Lukas Fischer turned the trick against the Sudbury Wolves, January 17th in a 6-2 win at the Hive) and was named the first star of the game.
Beamish scored once in the middle frame and added two more in the third that included a short-handed goal into an empty net to wrap up the scoring. Beamish first goal also turned out to be the winning goal and his third goal was a short-hand marker, the fifth shorty this season for Sarnia. Surzycia was stingy in net allowing the Storm just one goal for a second straight game and he was rewarded by being selected as the second star. Ruslan Karimov had two assists and was the third star. Alessandro Di lorio scored his 11th goal on the power-play to open the scoring for the Sting and Zach Filak netted his 12th of the season and his 39th point, which is one shy of his OHL career best of 40 set last season. Single assists went to Beckham Edwards, James Barr, who tied his OHL season best with 10 points from last year, Ryan Brown, Easton Wainwright and Mitch Young. Sarnia out-shot Guelph 38-35.
The Sting scored the only power-play goal, going one for four, while the Storm failed to convert in four chances. Charlie Paquette scored the only goal for Guelph in the third period at 3:39 before Filak answered 21 seconds later that took the wind out from the Storm. It was the final meeting of the season between the two clubs with Sarnia going (3-0-1-0), picking up seven out of eight points.
Lots of action in an exciting first period as both teams had plenty of scoring chances. Surzycia was forced into making a number of excellent saves including his best on Luchanko, who made a couple of great moves to move in on goal, but Surzycia was up to the task. An early fight between Sarnia’s Barr and Guelph’s Leo Serlin fired up the crowd, with both players landing blows. The Sting scored the only goal at 7:02 on the power-play. It took Di lorio all of ten seconds to score as he ripped a hard shot that found the back of the net. Edwards drew the lone assist.
Both teams finished with 11 shots on goal. For the second straight period Sarnia scored the lone goal to lead 2-0 after forty minutes of play. The play began at the Sting blue-line with Barr letting go a shot from the point and Beamish was able to knock the puck in on the rebound at 13:38. Both Barr and Brown assisted on the play. Sarnia out-shot Guelph 14-12, as they played a sound defensive game, backed up by the solid goaltending from Surzycia.
