McCue’s Three Goals Lead Flint Past Sarnia 6-2
By Carl Chimenti
Sam McCue (Toronto Maple leafs) scored a hat-trick and the Flint Firebirds (28-29-2-3) beat the Sarnia Sting (21-28-5-7) 6-2 Saturday night at the Dort Financial Center.
McCue opened the scoring in the first period and added two more in the second period and was named the first star of the game. Jimmy Lombardi had three assists and was the second star. Christopher Thibodeau, with a goal and an assist, was the third star for Flint.
Sarnia scored both of their goals in the third period from Daylen Moses and Liam Beamish which came at 6:11 and 17:32 respectively. Beamish is on a heater with goals in three straight games and five overall, including last night’s hat-trick. Mitch Young was one of four Sting players with one assist, extending his point streak to five games (1-4-5). Beckham Edwards also with one assist ran his current point streak to three games (2-2-4). Lukas Fischer (ST. Louis Blues) and Casey Bridgewater also contributed one assist.
Nick Surzycia started in net for the Sting and played the first two periods before Evan Maillet came in relief at the start of the third period. Surzycia finished with 20 saves on 25 shots and Maillet stopped 4 of 5 shots, which included a penalty shot from Josh Colosimo in the third period. Flint out-shot Sarnia 30-28. On the power-play the Firebirds were 2/4 and the Sting 0/3. Flint goaltender Nathan Day (Edmonton Oilers) had 26 saves on 28 shots. The Firebirds scored the only goal in the opening period, as they out-shot Sarnia 11-9, in an evenly played first period between the two teams. McCue scored an unassisted goal at 5:43. Surzycia came up with a huge save in the final minute, stopping Connor Clattenburg (Edmonton Oilers) on a break-away.
The second period was one that the Sting would like to forget as Flint scored four goals, three in the first 5:16 of play and had one more goal disallowed after a review, due to an offside. The first two goals were with the man-advantage as Alex Kostov found the back of the net just 31 seconds in. Karlis Flugins made it 3-0 at 3:49, again on the power-play. McCue scored the next two goals for his second hat-trick since joining the Firebirds, as he lit the lamp at 5:16 and 10:47 respectively. Flint out-shot Sarnia 14-9. The lone bright side for Sarnia came at 7:09, as Daylen Moses and Max Anderson got involved with a fight. Moses scored a KO as he landed most of the punches, including the last one that sent Anderson to the ice.
