Valiant Effort As Sting Fall Short In Shoot-Out Against Firebirds
By Carl Chimenti
Christopher Thibodeau scored twice in regulation and Jeremy Martin scored the only goal in the shoot-out to help lead the Flint Firebirds (12-15-1-1) to a 5-4 win over the Sarnia Sting (8-17-2-5) Wednesday night, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Sarnia led 4-3, but Thibodeau tied the game with 12.4 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime. The Sting out-shot the Firebirds 5-2, but neither team could score in the overtime session.
Thibodeau was selected as the second star. Liam Beamish scored his first two career OHL goals and his line which included Ryan Brown and Zach Filak, combined to score three goals and five points for the Sting. Beamish was named the first star. Brown had a two point night, that included a goal, his sixth of the season. It was Brown’s third straight game with a goal and he was selected as the third star. Filak had one assist in the game. Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) scored his fourth of the year with an assist from Easton Wainwright. Hughston Hurt assisted on the first Beamish goal.
Once again Sarnia dominated in the face-off circle 44-20. Beamish led the way winning 21/28, followed by Wainwright 12/19 and Carson Hall 10/14. Sting goaltender Nick Surzycia was strong in net with 29 saves on 33 shots, with his best save coming in the second period, as he robbed Flint forward Evan Konyen on a break-away with a great pad save. Sarnia out-shot Flint 34-33.
Both teams scored a power-play goal with Sarnia going 1/3 and their counterpart 1/5. This was the fifth meeting between the two teams with each game being decided by one goal. The Sting are 2-0-1-2 against their West division rival this season. Flint goaltender Nathan Day stopped 23 of 25 during regulation and all five shots during the shoot-out. The first period was evenly played with both teams scoring once each. Flint out-shot Sarnia by a slim margin 11-9. The Sting opened the scoring at 11:01.
Beamish forced a turnover on the fore-check and the puck came to Brown and he made no mistake depositing the puck into the back of the net for an unassisted goal. Christopher Thibodeau scored for Flint on the power-play, taking a puck that came off the end boards and scoring from the side of the net. Urban Podrekar and Matthew Mania (Los Angeles Kings) assisted on the play. Sarnia played a solid second period, scoring twice and out-shooting Flint 12-10. Hayden Reid put the Firebirds up 2-1 at 2:17 with Ryan Fellinger and Alex Kostov assisting.
The Sting tied the game on the power-play at 5:06. Wainwright won the draw back to Fischer and Fischer moved in and then let go a shot that beat Day, low to the glove side. Seconds later Sarnia appeared to score a go ahead goal, but the play went under review and the goal was disallowed due to an offside ruling.
Late in the period Sarnia struck again and this one counted. Beamish scored on a deflection on a shot from the point off the stick of Hurt late in the period at 17:53.
