Sting Score Once In Each Period To Beat Storm 3-1
By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting (20-27-5-7) scored once in each period and put in a strong team defensive effort to beat the Guelph Storm 3-1 and in the process put an end to a three game winless streak, before a large crowd of 4,215, Sunday afternoon, at the Progressive Auto Sale Arena.
The win put the Sting back into the number seven seed in the Western Conference with 51 points jumping over both the Owen Sound Attack and the Soo Greyhounds, who were both idle on Sunday.
Beckham Edwards scored his team leading 22nd, as part of a two point game, in the first period. Liam Beamish netted his 10th of the year and the eventual game winner in the second period and Matthew Manza scored his fifth goal of the season, an insurance goal, in the final stanza. The Sting swept the three star selection with Beamish (1st star), Edwards (2nd star) and Daylen Moses, who had one assist, as the 3rd star. Jack O’Brien, Ryan Brown, and Mitch Young also had one assist each. In goal Nick Surzycia was solid, as he turned away all but one of the 24 shots he faced. Overall Sarnia out-shot Guelph 29-24.
The two teams will meet for the fourth and final time in the back end of the home and home stand, this coming Friday night in Guelph, at the Sleeman Centre. Both teams went 0/3 with the man-advantage and were even in the face-off circle 26-26. Charlie Paquette scored the lone goal, unassisted for the Storm. Guelph goaltender Zachary Jovanovski stopped 26 of 29 shots.
With the win Sarnia’s home record improves to 13-11-2-4. Both teams scored in the opening period as Sarnia dominated, out-shooting Guelph by a wide margin of 12-5. Edwards put the Sting up 1-0 as he took a feed along the half wall from Moses and from his back-hand let go a shot that beat goaltender Jovanovski top shelf. Moses and O’Brien were credited with the assists.
Exactly five minutes later the Storm scored the equalizer at 7:40 as Charlie Pacquette went coast to coast. The referees seemed to have forgotten their whistles in the dressing room, as there were a number of non-calls for both teams, that led to a dust-off at the end of the period, with numerous players getting involved with some rough play.
In the second period the shots favored Guelph 11-7, but Sarnia scored the lone goal and it came at 9:10. Beamish and Brown worked the give and go with Beamish finishing off the scoring play going upstairs. Brown and Young assisted on the play. Rough play continued for both teams and that resulted in a number of minor penalties and a game misconduct to Sting forward Dylan Luecke.
