Leenders Stops 38 Of 39 As Brantford Downs Sarnia 3-1
Leenders Stops 38 Of 39 As Brantford Downs Sarnia 3-1
By Carl Chimenti
Ryerson Leenders turned in a stellar performance in net as turned away all but one of the 39 shots he faced and the Brantford Bulldogs scored one goal in each period as they beat the Sarnia Sting 3-1, Friday night, in front of 3,035, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena. Leenders was named the first star. Ben Pickell scored the only goal for the Sting and it came at 7:37 of the third period to close the Bulldog lead to 2-1 but that was as close as Sarnia would come. The Sting did have a few good scoring chances on a late power-play, but following the kill The Bulldogs scored an empty net goal from Cooper Dennis at 18:57 to ice the victory. Pickell ran his point streak to three games (2-1-3) and was named the second star. Cameron Aucoin and Jordan Bax assisted on the lone Sting goal. Bax extended his point streak with the assist to three games (1-4-5).
Patrick Quinlan who was named the Mary Brown Chicken OHL goaltender of the week, this past week was excellent in net for Sarnia stopping 20 of 22 shots. The Sting were better on the shot clock 39-23, and also in the face-off dot 36-22. On the power play Brantford went one for two while Sarnia failed to score on four chances. In an evenly played first period Brantford scored the lone goal. Sam McCue (Toronto Maple Leafs) scored from the side of the net by Owen Protz (Montreal Canadiens) and Adam Jiricek (St. Louis Blues) at 8:53. Both teams were even on the shot clock with 11 shots each in a penalty free first period. Sarnia outshot Brantford in the second period 11-6, but it was the Bulldogs who scored the only goal which came on the power-play at 15:05. Jiricek scored in close with assists from both Jake O’Brien (Seattle Kraken) and Caleb Malhotra. Sting forward Jordan Bax made the defensive play of the game as he lifted the stick of Marek Vanacker (Chicago Black Hawks) just as if he was about to let go a shot in between the hash marks following a Bulldog 2 on 1 break.
