Flint Beats Sarnia 6-2 Behind Kaden Pitre’s Four Points
By Carl Chimenti
Kaden Pitre (Tampa Bay Lightning) scored two goals and added a pair of assists to lead the Flint Firebirds (25-27-2-3) to a 6-2 win over the Sarnia Sting (19-27-4-7), Wednesday evening at the Dort Financial Center.
The game was close entering the third period but the Firebirds scored three times to give them some breathing room and the win. Pitre was named the first star. Nathan Aspinall (New York Rangers) scored the insurance goal in the final period at 13:39 and along with two assists was selected as the second star. Alex Kostov scored an empty net shorthanded goal at 18:23 and James Paul with his first career OHL goal wrapped up the scoring at 19:47. Blake Smith and Connor Clattenburg (Edmonton Oilers) had two assists each with Clattenburg notching the third star.
Sarnia did all their scoring in the first period with Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) getting his 14th of the year and Mitch Young adding his 7th of the season. Tyson Doucette, James Barr, Alessandro Di lorio and Matthew Manza contributed with one assist each. Nick Surzycia was busy in net for the Sting as he stopped 40 of 45 shots to keep Sarnia within striking distance.
On the other side Nathan Day turned away 25 of 27 Sting shots. Flint totaled 46 shots on goal to Sarnia’s 27. The Sting failed to score on three power-play chances while the Firebirds scored once in two opportunities with the man-advantage. This was the final meeting between the two clubs with Sarnia going 2-1-1-2 in the six games.
Sarnia played a good first period road game, scoring twice to take a 2-1 lead after the first intermission. Fischer opened the scoring at 4:57. Doucette fed Fischer on the left side and Fischer’s shot deflected off Flint’s Matthew Mania (Los Angeles Kings) and into the net.
Doucette and Di lorio were credited with the assists. The Firebirds tied the game at 13:41 on an unassisted goal from Pitre. Young put the Sting back on top with a goal that came 79 seconds after the Flint tying goal. Young skating along the blue-line let go a blast from inside the blue-line and the puck hit the crossbar and went behind Firebird’s goaltender Day at 15:01. Barr and Manza assisted on the scoring play. Flint out-shot Sarnia 13-8. Flint scored twice in the second period and skated off with a 3-2 lead after forty minutes.
Urban Podrekar tied the game at 10:12 with a power-play goal with Pitre and Connor Clattenburg (Edmonton Oilers) assisting. Less than two minutes later the Firebirds went ahead for the first time in the game with an even strength goal at 12:02. Pitre scored his second of the game, back door, after receiving a nice pass from Aspinall. Blake Smith drew the second assist. Late in the period Sarnia came close with a shot that hit the goal post. The shots on goal favored the Firebirds for a second straight period 17-10.
