Sarnia’s Late Charge Falls Short As Owen Sound Holds On For 5-4 Win
By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting made an exciting late bid to overcome a four-goal deficit, but fell one goal short as the Owen Sound Attack held on for dear life, winning 5-4 Saturday night, at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.
The rally began with a Daylen Moses (4th) second period goal with just four seconds remaining which set up a dominating third period that saw the Sting score twice while out-shooting the Attack 18-4 and 46-27 overall. Mitch Young scored his fifth of the year from the point to close the gap to 5-3 early on at 1:21 and the Attack lead shrunk to just a goal minutes later at 4:46 on a goal from Easton Wainwright (4th), who finished off a great break-out with both Sandis Vilmanis (Florida Panthers) and Lukas Fischer involved in the highlight scoring play. A little later in the period Owen Sound seemed to score on a bank shot from Deni Goure. The Sting coaching staff challenged the call for goaltending interference and after a lengthy review the challenge was successful and the goal was disallowed.
Sarnia went back to work from there and soon pulled rookie goaltender Logan Phillips, who came in relief for Nick Surzycia in the second stanza, but could not score the equalizer. Wainwright had a three point night for the Sting and was selected as the second star. Along with Moses and Young, Andrew LeBlanc also scored once. Fischer and Vilmanis provided a pair of assists each and Jacob LeBlanc and James Barr each contributed one helper. The assist for Barr extended his point streak to four games (1-4-5). Jacob LeBlanc point streak reached six games (2-9-11). Fischer has three assists in his last two games. Vilmanis has a goal and three assists in his last two games. Young has put up two goals and three points along with Andrew LeBlanc 1 goal and two assists, also in the past two games. Surzycia started and played 30:08 stopping 16 of 21 shots and Phillips turned away all six shots he faced in 28:02. Sarnia went 0/4 on the power-play and Owen Sound scored on their lone man-advantage.
Gore and Ethan Burroughs both had a goal and an assist and Gore was the first star and Burroughs the third star. Cedrick Guindon (Montreal Canadiens) added a pair of assists. Nico Addy’s assist was his first career OHL point. The Sting came out strong in the first ten minutes of the contest scoring the opening goal of the game at 10:26. Wainwright dropped the puck off to Andrew LeBlanc (8th) and he let go a shot from in front, that went inside of the post on the short side. The final half of the first period belonged to the Attack as they lit the lamp for three unanswered goals. Jake Crawford (3rd) tied the game at 14:07. Declan Waddick (5th) put Owen Sound ahead at 16:12 from Addy. Burroughs (12th) made it 3-1 with a power-play goal from Guindon and Sam Sedley. Sarnia out-shot Owen Sound 14-8. The Sting had a couple of chances on the power-play but failed to score while the Attack were successful in their only chance with the man-advantage. Owen Sound scored the first two goals in the second period before the Sting scored a late goal to close the gap. Servac Petrovsky (Minnesota Wild) with his 10th, scored at 4:10 from Sedley and Guindon. Goure (16th) made it 5-1 from Burroughs at 10:08. Moses got a nice break off the end wall and he was able to get his stick on the puck and deflect it into the net, the goal coming at the end of the second period. Fischer and Vilmanis assisted on the goal. Owen Sound was one better on the shot clock at 15-14.
