Sting Drop Friday Matchup, Turn Focus To Family Day Monday
By Carl Chimenti
The Flint Firebirds opened up a 3-0 lead and then held on to beat the Sarnia Sting 5-2, Friday night in front of 4,367, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The Sting were decked out in the winning Real Canadian Superstore jersey, which was designed by Ethan Purdon. Immediately after the game the player worn Jersey’s went up for a live auction with all proceeds going towards the PC Children’s Charity.
Sarnia came into the third period trailing Flint 3-1. The Firebirds sandwiched a pair of goals, the last an empty netter, in between a Sting goal from Tyson Doucette, his 19th, at the 7:50 mark of the final period, but that was as close as they would come. Doucette also added an assist as part of a two-point night. Zach Filak scored his 16th goal and was awarded the second star of the game. Marko Sikic and Mitch Young had one assist each. Sarnia goaltender Nick Surzycia, turned aside 17 of 21 shots directed towards him. The Sting out-shot the Firebirds 24-22.
Both teams scored once in two tries with the man-advantage. The loss was a tough one as Flint now leads Sarnia by two points and the Erie Otters beat Guelph tonight and lead the Sting by four points, in the race for the playoffs in the Western Conference. Five different players scored for the Firebirds, which included former Sting Nolan Dann, who was named the first star, Oliver Peer, Jeremy Martin, Simon Slavicek and Connor Clattenberg, who also had an assist. Tristan Bertucci (Dallas Stars) had three assists and was the third star. Alex Kostov contributed a pair of assists.
The two teams will play twice more, with both games to be played within a span of nine days, in the final two weeks of the season, in March.
Flint goaltender Nathan Day (Edmonton Oilers), picked up his second win in as many games against Sarnia, stopping 22 of 24 shots. The Sting dominated in the face-off circle 31-19. Flint scored twice in a very slow starting first period for both teams. The Firebirds registered the first official shot on goal at 11:43 and the first Sarnia shot came at 13:41. Flint ended up out-shooting Sarnia 6-4. The Firebirds opened the scoring at 14:55 on a goal from Peer with the lone assist from Nathan Aspinall. Flint increased their lead to 2-0 on a goal from Martin at 18:15. Clattenberg and Matthew Wang assisted on the goal. There were no minor penalties assessed in the opening period.
The two teams traded goals in the second period as Sarnia out-shot Flint 12-9. The Firebirds made it 3-0 as Slavicek from Bertucci and Kostov at 14:23. Sarnia broke through with a power-play goal from Filak. It was a give and go with Filak sending a short pass to Doucette and he returned the favor to Filak, who was falling, but was able to put the puck in the net at 17:18.