Flint Nips Sarnia In Shoot-Out, Win 3-2
By Carl Chimenti
Nathan Aspinall scored the only goal in the shoot-out and the Flint Firebirds (10-13-0-1), escaped with a 3-2 win over the Sarnia Sting (8-13-1-4), Wednesday night, at the Dort Financial Center. It was a hard fought point for the Sting as they overcame a two goal deficit on the strength of two goals from Ruslan Karimov, who scored his fifth in the second period and his sixth at 10:34 of the third period, to tie the game, and sending it to overtime.
Flint out-shot Sarnia 3-1 in the extra session. Nick Surzycia, who stopped 28 of 30 was flawless in overtime as both teams failed to score. In the shoot-out Aspinall scored as the second Flint shooter to give the Firebirds the extra point to even the season series at two wins each. Karimov was selected as the second star. Zach Filak, Easton Wainwright and Carter Kostuch contributed single assists.
Sarnia welcomed newly signed forward Liam Beamish, as he made his OHL debut. Beamish fared well, with one shot on goal, and was 10/14 in the face-off circle. Sting Nation was happy to see the return of Captain Lukas Fischer to the line-up, after missing more than a month due to injury. Flint out-shot Sarnia overall 30-22, but Sarnia was better on the draw, 29-27. The game had very few penalties as Sarnia went 0/3 and Flint 0/1.
Jeremy Martin was the first star for the Firebirds with a goal and Connor Clattenburg (Edmonton Oilers) was the third star with one goal. Flint’s Nathan Day turned away 20 of 22 shots. The Firebirds scored the only goal in the first period and it brought the teddy bear’s flying to the ice from the stands. Clattenburg scored the goal from a deflection, as he was parked in front of the net at 14:01. Matthew Mania (Los Angeles Kings) and Evan Konyen, assisted on the scoring play. Flint out-shot Sarnia in a penalty free opening period 8-5. A better period for the Sting, as both teams traded goals in the second period. Sarnia out-shot Flint 12-9. Jeremy Martin scored an unassisted goal on a break-away, early on, at 2:35 for Flint.
Sarnia had a couple of power-plays and even though they did not capitalize, it was after the second man-advantage had just expired, that saw the first Sting goal. Filak made a short pass to Karimov, and he displayed some soft hands, making a great move around Firebirds goaltender Day as he tucked the puck into the net at 17:59. Filak and Kostuch were credited with the helpers.
