Sarnia Opens Season With Thrilling 5-4 Overtime Win Over Windsor
By Carl Chimenti
Tyson Doucette was johnny on the spot as he put in the overtime winner at 1:42 of overtime to send the full house of 3,955 at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena into bedlam, and the Sarnia Sting overcame a 3-0 deficit to come from behind in a very exciting 5-4 win over the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL season and home opener.
From a maze of players, the puck trickled through Windsor goaltender Carter Froggett’s legs and Doucette swept it into the net, that kicked off a mad celebration on the ice and in the stands. The two teams scored once in the third period to send the game into overtime.
Kaeden Johnston put the Sting into the lead for the first time only to see Liam Greentree (Los Angeles Kings) tie the game at 4-4 at the 10:18 mark. Johnston scored two goals and an assist in his first game as a Sting and just dominated the second and third periods. For his effort he was named first star. Zach Filak and Beckham Edwards scored once. Edwards was named the third star for the Sting. Mitch Young and Carter Kostuch had a pair of assists each and Ruslan Karimov, in his Sting debut contributed one assist. Nick Surzycia was solid in net for Sarnia as he turned away 29 of 33 shots.
Liam Greentree scored a goal and two assists for Windsor and was the second star. The Spitfires out-shot the Sting 33-28. Windsor scored the only power-play goal going 1/5 while Sarnia was 0/6. In the face-off circle Sarnia prevailed 34-31. Froggett stopped 23 of 28 shots in Windsor’s net.
Windsor opened the scoring on the power-play from Ryan Abraham(2) at 2:18. Greentree and Anthony Cristoforo assisted. Cole Davis(2) made it 2-0 at 11:24 from Jean-Christoph Lemieux and Ethan Garden It was Garden’s first career OHL point. Sarnia native Jack Nesbitt notched his second of the season with an even strength goal at 14:57 to increase the Spitfires lead to 3-0. Greentree and Cristoforo drew their second assist of the period. Sarnia came back with a goal at 17:17. Edwards scored his first career OHL goal.
The play started when Kostuch sent a pass to the side of the net and Karimov was able to come up with the puck and from his back hand, was able to put the puck in front and Edwards tapped it home. With less than two minutes to play in the opening frame Tyson Doucette was robbed by Froggett. Forward Kaeden Johnston, who was acquired this week from the London Knights played a pivotal role in the second period displaying his offensive skill with a goal and an assist that sent both teams tied 3-3 through 40 minutes.
Johnston and Kostuch worked the give and go with Johnston scoring his first goal of the season and first in a Sting uniform at 7:53. Young also drew an assist to close the Sting deficit to 3-2. Zach Filak tied the game at 11:42 after he received a perfect pass in front from Johnston. Sarnia had a slim 9-8 advantage on the shot clock.
