Sarnia Falls To Oshawa On The Road 7-2
By Carl Chimenti
The Oshawa Generals broke open a close game, scoring three goals in the second period, as they extended their winning streak to ten games, beating the Sarnia Sting, Sunday evening 7-2, at the Tribute Communities Centre.
Kostuch’s 11th goal of the season in the middle period put Sarnia within reach at 3-2, but that was as close as the Sting would get. Along with Kostuch, Easton Wainwright scored the first goal of the game and 12th of the season. Matthew Anderson assisted on the goal. It was his first career OHL point. Doherty also assisted on the goal. Mitch Young, also had one assist, coming on the Kostuch goal. Karsen Chartier was strong in net, especially in the opening period when he made a handful of ten bell, high quality saves. Chartier in all turned aside 25 of 32 shots.
Oshawa swept the three-star selection with Owen Griffin, (first career OHL goal), as the first star. Rasmus Kumpulainen (Minnesota Wild), scored a goal and an assist and was named as the second star. Beckett Sennecke, had a goal and two assists and was the third star.
Jacob Oster, stopped 28 of 30 shots for the Generals. Luke Torrance, Luca D’Amato and Luca Marrelli, had a pair of assists each. Oshawa out-shot Sarnia by a slim margin of 32-30. The Generals also scored the lone power-play goal, going 1/5, while the Sting failed to convert on four chances. The first period was a terrific display of goaltending by Chartier as he stopped 12 of 14 shots, Including a dazzling glove save on Ethan Toms, the save of the period, and a ten bell stop with his pad, on Calum Ritchie (Colorado Avalanche) in the final seconds of the period.
Wainwright opened the scoring for the Sting. Doherty started the play, getting the puck to Anderson and he sent a stretch pass to Wainwright and he scored on the short side of goaltender Oster. For Anderson it was his first career OHL point.
Oshawa proceeded to score the next two goals from Ritchie, with assist to Sennecke at 2:27 and Connor Punnett (Dallas Stars) at 6:44 on the power-play, with Sennecke and Marrelli assisting. Oshawa out-shot Sarnia 14-9. Griffin scored the first of three goals for the Generals in the middle stanza, early on at 2:22, from Torrance and Zackary Sandhu. Sarnia matched the goal at 6:56. Young was able to send a pass to Kostuch and Kostuch went upstairs to pull the Sting back to within a goal at 3-2. Kumpulainen scored an insurance goal for Oshawa at 14:21, with assists going to Stuart Rolofs and Ben Danford. Late in the period, Sennecke made it 5-2 at 18:54, from Dylan Roobroeck and Kumpulainen. Sarnia was better by one, on the shot clock, 10-9.