By Carl Chimenti

Caden Taylor scored with 1:29 left in overtime to give the Peterborough Petes (4-18-1-4) a 3-2 win over the Sarnia Sting (8-15-2-4), Thursday night at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. T

he game was scoreless for almost two entire periods until Tyson Doucette broke the Ice with the first of his two goals at 19:08 of the middle frame. In the third period, it seemed that Nick Surzycia was in shut-out form, with a little more than ten minutes to go in regulation.

The Petes finally scored at 11:27 as Blake Gowan (1st star) scored his first career OHL goal and the crowd erupted with the teddy bear’s flying from the stands onto the ice. Less than two minutes later the Petes struck again this time on a power-play marker from Aiden Young ( 2nd star) at 13:18.

Sarnia showing some true grit and didn’t quit, as they scored the equalizer on Doucette’s second goal of the game and his 12th of the season at 18:58 to send the game into overtime.

Nathan Omeri and Ruslan Karimov assisted on the first Doucette goal and Jack Bodin along with Carter Kostuch assisted on Doucette’s tying goal. Surzycia was especially sharp in the first two periods as he stopped all 24 shots. In all his totals were 32 saves on 35 shots.

The Petes out-shot the Sting 35-28 and both teams went 1/6 on the power-play. Defenseman Jack O’Brien made his OHL debut for the Sting and registered three shots on goal. There were few chances by either team in a scoreless first period although Sarnia did out-shoot Peterborough 11-9. Doucette had the best chance to score for the Sting as he broke in alone with Sarnia shorthanded, but Peterborough goaltender Easton Rye made a pad save, which came in the final minute. Both teams went 0/2 on the power-play. Surzycia made a couple of nice saves, including one late off the stick of Young. The Sting finally broke through in final minute of the second period as Doucette lit the lamp for a power-play goal at 19:08. Omeri and Karimov drew the assists. Surzycia was the story in the middle frame as he made save after save after save, 15 in total. Three of the saves came on Pete break-aways.

Former Sting Ryder McIntyre missed out on a golden chance when his shot went wide with an open net in the final seconds, forcing the Pete fans to hold on to their teddy bears for a second straight period. Sarnia had seven shots on goal.