Edwards Scores Overtime Winner, Sarnia Beats London 3-2
By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting (13-19-2-5) received strong goaltending from Nick Surzycia, and Beckham Edwards scored the game winning goal in overtime to beat the London Knights (29-7-0-0) 3-2, in front of the largest crowd of the season, as 4,475 watched and cheered Wednesday afternoon, in a thrilling victory at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena, over their 402 rivals.
It was the first win this season, and snapped a nine game losing streak against the Knights. Nick Surzycia had a huge bounce back game, as he turned away 29 of 31 London shots, and for his effort was selected as the first star. Beckham Edwards scored a power-play goal at 3:28 of overtime for the game winner, beating Knights goaltender Alexsei Medvedev with a perfect shot on the short side, with Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) and Mitch Young assisting. Edwards (two points) was the third star, for his heroics.
After trailing most of the game London scored twice in the final period, including the tying goal from Denver Barkey (Philadelphia Flyers) with less then two minutes to play at 18:15 to send the game into overtime. Dylan Luecke scored his second of the season and Daylen Moses, broke a long goalless drought, scoring for the first time in 18 games, with his fourth of the year. Along with Fischer and Young, Casey Bridgewater, Ruslan Karimov and James Barr contributed with one assist each.
Special teams was also a key contributor for the Sting, as they went one for three on the power-play and killed off a number of penalties in crucial parts of the game, including the final minutes in the middle frame and continued in the early part of the third period. Both teams finished with 31 shots on net. Sarnia had the edge on face-off wins 31-28, with Liam Beamish batting 500, going 11/22. A solid first period for the Sting as they scored the only goal, out-shooting the Knights 11-7.
A three way passing play saw Edwards feed Bridgewater and he in return sent a pass to Luecke, who broke in alone and was able to slip the puck past Medvedev at 11:10. An interesting second stanza, saw the Sting score the only goal for the second straight period. Sarnia fell into serious penalty trouble late in the second period as they were assessed a five minute major in the final four minutes of the period. Things got worse when the Sting were handed a minor penalty, putting Sarnia down two men.
The Sting managed to keep London off the score board, heading into the third period, with Surzycia making a number of excellent saves and he also got help from a number of Sting players blocking a few shots as well. London out-shot Sarnia 17-6. The Sting scored at 13:47 to go up 2-0, through forty minutes of play. Karimov did some strong work behind the net, eventually getting the puck out front to Moses and he was able to tap the puck past Medvedev. Karimov and Barr were credited with the assists.
