Flint Finds Momentum, Beats Sarnia 4-3 In Shoot-Out
By Carl Chimenti
The Flint Firebirds scored once in the third period and then scored the only goal in the shoot-out to beat the Sarnia Sting 4-3, Wednesday night, at the Dort Financial Center.
The Sting led 3-2 after two periods but Marko Stojkov tied the game at 6:48 in the third period, sending the game into overtime. Sarnia had the only shot in the extra session. The shoot-out saw former Sting Nolan Dann score the only goal for the game winner. The two teams will play again Friday night, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena (puck drop 7:05pm), to complete the home and home series.
Zack Filak (15th), Carson Hall (4th) and Daylen Moses (9th) scored for Sarnia. Filak’s goal was a personal milestone, surpassing his previous high of 14 goals in one season, during the 2022-23 season. It was also Filak’s first game back since being injured February 4th, against the Windsor Spitfires.
Six Sting players had one assist each, that included Lukas Fischer, who ran his modest Point streak to three games (0-4-4), along with Mitch Young, Cooper Way, Ryan Brown, Nathan Omeri and Sean Doherty. In goal, Nick Surzycia put in a solid effort with 25 saves on 28 shots. His counter-part Nathan Day (Edmonton Oilers) ended with the same identical stats. Both teams had 28 shots.
Flint swept the three-star selections. Dann, who also scored in regulation, was the third star, Day was the second star and Tristan Bertucci (Dallas Stars), the first star with one goal. Gavin Ewles had a pair of assists. The Sting scored the first two goals in the opening period before Flint scored their lone goal. Brown and Way did the grunt work getting the puck to Filak and he scored beating Day through the five hole at 4:35. Hall made it 2-0 at 9:12 after coming up with a loose puck, and banking his shot off of Day’s skate. Doherty and Young assisted on the goal.
Flint sliced the lead to 2-1 on a goal from Bertucci at 10:26. Nathan Aspinall and Alex Kostov assisted on the scoring play. There were no minor penalties called but Sarnia’s Duncan Schneider and Flint’s Jeremy Martin both drew five-minute majors for fighting at 18:43 with Schneider getting the best of Martin.
The Firebirds out-shot the Sting 13-7.
In the second period the Sting started out slow and Surzycia was the difference allowing only one goal on 12 shots. The Firebirds tied the game at 7:47 on a goal from Dann with Ewies and Jimmy Lombardi assisting. Offensively, Sarnia could only muster nine shots on goal with the majority of those shots taken in the second hale of the middle frame. The Sting however went back in front with a late goal at 18:20. Fischer dropped a pass back to Omeri at the point and his shot bounced off of Day’s pad to Moses and he potted the rebound into the net for a 3-2 lead at the end of forty minutes.
