Sting Fall Short To Steelheads, Drop Wednesday Matchup 6-3
By Carl Chimenti
The Mississauga Steelheads scored three goals in each of the final two periods to beat the Sarnia Sting 6-3, Wednesday night, in front of 3,971, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The loss along with a Flint Firebirds win over the Soo Greyhounds put an end to Sarnia’s playoff hopes. Sarnia led 2-0 after one period of play, but the Steelheads scored six of the next seven goals, including what proved to be the winning goal from Mason Zebeski in the second period.
Zach Filak scored his 21st and 22nd goals of the season for the Sting and was named the second star of the game. Captain Cooper Way celebrated his 200th career OHL game with a goal, his 10th of the year.
Easton Wainwright was one of five Sting players with an assist, setting a personal season high milestone with 34 points, surpassing his last year total of 33. Daylen Moses, Carter Kostuch, Tyson Doucette and Sean Doherty also contributed with one assist each. Sting goaltender Karsen Chartier stopped 25 of 30 shots. The game featured the return of two former Sting players since last season’s trade and although Porter Martone did not play due to an injury, Angus MacDonell (Dallas Stars), did and scored a goal and was selected as the third star. Chas Sharpe and Lucas Karmiris had a goal and an
assist with Sharpe being chosen as the first star of the game. Mississauga out-shot Sarnia 31-26, as the two teams split the season series with one win each. On the power-play, Mississauga went 2/3 and Sarnia 2/5.
The Sting were better in the face-off dot, 29-26. Sarnia returns to the ice on Friday night, at the Hive, against the Flint Firebirds, with puck drop at 7:05pm.
The Sting played a solid first period scoring the only two goals despite being out-shot 10-7. Sarnia opened the scoring with an even strength goal at 14:22 from Filak, who was the recipient of a pass from Wainwright, who got the initial pass from Moses, and showed some speed going down the left side and as he turned towards the net fed Filak who was charging towards the cage and he was able to put the puck into the net. Way, finished off a three-way passing play for the second Sting goal which came at 16:19 on the power-play. Kostuch and Doucette assisted on the goal. Chartier was in fine form as he made a number of good saves, including an excellent glove save at the mid-way point on MacDonell and later came up big stopping Jack Van Volsen on a partial break-away.
Mississauga scored three unanswered goals in the second period and skated off with a 3-2 lead after forty minutes. Sharpe scored a power-play goal at the 39 second mark from Karmiris and Dean Loukus to put the Steelheads on the board. MacDonell, tied the game at 12:37, with an unassisted goal following a broken play. William Eggleton, scored the go-ahead goal 68 seconds later at 13:45, from Jakub Fibigr. The Steelheads out-shot the Sting 10-9.