Pinelli Nets Hat-Trick As Ottawa Hands Sarnia 6-1 Loss
By Carl Chimenti
Luca Pinelli (Columbus Blue Jackets) scored three goals to lead the Ottawa 67’s (10-10-2-4) to a 6-1 win over the Sarnia Sting (8-16-2-4), Friday night, at the TD Place.
The Sting’s lone goal came in the second period from Ryan Brown (4th) and put them back in the game, trailing 2-1. From there Ottawa reeled off four straight goals, which included three straight from Pinelli, with two coming via the power-play. Sarnia out-shot Ottawa 37-32 and the game was a lot closer than the final score.
Liam Beamish and Zach Filak assisted on the lone Sting goal. For Beamish it was his first career OHL point. Nick Surzycia stopped 26 of 32 shots.
Pinelli was named first star, followed by Cooper Foster (Pittsburgh Penguins) the second star, with three assists and Jack Dever, the third star. Henry Mews (Calgary Flames) had a pair of assists. Ottawa goaltender Jaeden Nelson turned away all but one of the 37 shots he faced. The two teams split the season series with the Sting winning at home 5-4 in a shoot-out on November 22, at the Hive. Sarnia went 0/5 and Ottawa 2/4 on the power-play. Surzycia stood tall in the opening period as he stopped all 13 Ottawa shots, including a partial break-away from Kimi Korbler.
The 67’s seemed to score early on, but the play went under review and the goal was not allowed, due to Ottawa being offside. Sarnia had nine shots on goal. Both teams went 0/2 on the power-play in the scoreless first period. Ottawa broke the ice with the game’s first goal as Zach Houben scored from Nic Whitehead at 3:46 in the second period. Will Gerrior from Mews at 7:56 put the 67’s up by a pair of goals.
The Sting came back as they took over play in the second half of the middle frame and they sliced the lead to one. Brown took a pass from Beamish and he beat Nelson with a shot to the far side at 9:27. Filak also assisted on the play. Ottawa scored a power-play goal late at 19:12 from Pinelli and the 67’s skated off with a 3-1 lead after forty minutes of play. Sarnia out-shot Ottawa 17-11.
