Sarnia Nets Three In The Third To Beat Brantford 4-1
By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting (14-19-2-5) scored three goals in the third period to the delight of 4,349, Friday night, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena and beat the Brantford Bulldogs (18-15-4-0) 4-1. It was the Sting’s second straight win and third in their last four games.
The two teams ended their season series with a win apiece, with each team winning at home for the 2024-25 season. Nick Surzycia was outstanding in net once again, stopping all but one of the 30 shots he faced. He made three incredible saves in the last five minutes with the game still on the line. Surzycia was named the first star for the third time in the last four games.
With the game entering the third period tied at 1-1, Dylan Luecke scored what proved to be the winning goal – 28 seconds in, his first game winner, and his second in two games, and third of the season. Luecke was selected as the third star of the game. Easton Wainwright started the play, winning the face-off back to Jack O’Brien and his shot was tipped by Luecke, who was parked in front of the net, past Bulldog’s goaltender David Egorov. Late it the third, Wainwright and Alessandro Di lorio worked the give and go, with Wainwright scoring the all-important insurance goal, his tenth, at 16:10. O’Brien picked up his second assist on the goal. Ryan Brown scored into an empty net with his 11th from Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) and Liam Beamish to wrap up the scoring for the Sting. Sarnia was the better team in all aspects, 37-30 on the shot clock, 34-24 in the face-off circle and they scored the only power-play goal, going 1/5. It was the fourth straight game in which Sarnia has scored with the man-advantage.
Egorov was the second star with 33 saves on 36 shots. Marek Vanacker (Chicago Black Hawks) scored the lone goal for the Bulldogs. For the Sting, Wainwright and Brown had a goal and an assist. Zach Filak scored his 10th of the year. Single assists came from Ruslan Karimov, Di lorio, Fischer and Liam Beamish. A scoreless first period saw The Bulldogs out-shooting the Sting by a slim 9-7 margin. Sarnia had a couple of power-plays, to one, for Brantford, with both teams failing to convert.
Surzycia made the best save in the opening period, making a nice save off the stick of Cole Brown in the final minute of play, with the Bulldogs skating with the man-advantage. Both teams scored once in the second period, but Sarnia could have had at least a couple more. Filak opened the scoring for the Sting at 7:41, but not without a long delay. The play first went under a lengthy review, but the goal was allowed. Bulldogs head coach Jay McKee did not agree with the call and decided to challenge and that took even more time with another look at the tablet. In the end, the call stood for a 1-0 lead with Karimov and Brown assisting on the power-play goal. Moments later it appeared that Sarnia had scored again. The play went under review once more, but the goal was ruled to have been kicked in and was disallowed.
Vanacker tied the game at 13:03 on an even strength goal from Jake O’Brien and Calvin Crombie. In the final minute of play both goaltenders made highlight saves to keep the game tied after forty minutes. First, Sting goaltender Surzycia robbed Crombie and then the play went the other way with Bulldogs netminder Egorov, making a great left pad save off the stick off Kaeden Johnston. Sarnia out-shot Brantford 14-8
