Sting Score Four Goals In Third Period To Cap Wild 6-5 Comeback On Indigenous Heritage Game Day
By Carl Chimenti
The fourth largest crowd (4,374) of the season were treated to an exciting comeback as the Sarnia Sting scored four goals in the third period to overcome a 4-2 deficit, with a thrilling come from behind win, as they beat the North Bay Battalion on Sunday afternoon, in the annual Indigenous Heritage game, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The Battalion led by a pair of goals after an early power-play goal by Justin Ertel (Dallas Stars) at 1:31 of the third period. But a gutsy performance by the Sting saw goals from Marko Sikic (15th) on the power-play, Carter Kostuch (7th), against his former team, and two goals from Zach Filak, his 18th and 19th, with his second goal, proving to be the game winner at 13:18, also on the power-play. North Bay pulled their goaltender in the final two minutes and scored, but Sting goaltender Nick Surzycia shut the door.
The win was huge for Sarnia as they are now just two points behind the Flint Firebirds, in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Filak was named the first star. Tyson Doucette had a three-point game, that included his 20th goal, becoming the first Sting player to reach that plateau. Doucette was voted as the second star. Sikic and Kostuch both had a goal and an assist. Sean Doherty scored his sixth of the year and second goal in his last three games. Lukas Fischer had a pair of assists and Captain Cooper Way, Ryan Brown and Daylen Moses added one helper each. Surzycia came up with a number of great saves as he turned away 27 of 32 shots.
It was the first game against North Bay since the big trade that saw Sandis Vilmanis (Florida Panthers) and the LeBlanc Brothers, Andrew and Jacob move to the Battalion and Kostuch along with Alex Cajkovic, joining the Sting in January, just before the OHL trade deadline. The Sting organization played a tribute video for the three players, for their contributions to the Sarnia Sting. Andrew LeBlanc had two assists and was the third star.
North Bay out-shot Sarnia 32-28 and both teams went 2/5 with the man-advantage. The two teams will meet for the final time Thursday night in North Bay, in the first game of a three-game northern swing, next weekend for the Sting.
North Bay scored three times in the opening period, including a power-play goal that came with a minute left and the Battalion skated off with a 3-1 lead after the first twenty minutes of play. Brice Cooke opened the scoring with an even strength marker at 3:06 with Trevor McDowell and Justin Ertel (Dallas Stars) assisting. The Battalion’s Dalyn Wakely scored at 4:28 to open up a 2-0 lead. The assists went to Andrew LeBlanc and Ertel.
Sarnia broke through at 13:01 to slice the lead in half. Sikic was able to win the battle inside the Battalion end and Kostuch came up with the loose puck and was able to find Doucette and he scored with a shot along the ice that beat goaltender Mike McIvor on the stick side. Late in the period Fischer came out of the penalty box and seemed to have a break-away, but the officials whistled it down due to an upcoming Sting penalty.
At 19:00, North Bay scored a power-play goal from Ethan Procyszyn. Owen Van Steensel and Andrew LeBlanc assisted. North Bay out-shot Sarnia 10-5. The Sting scored the only goal in the second period received some solid goaltending from Surzycia, especially in the final few minutes. Doherty scored the lone goal at 8:19 coming across the blue-line and letting go a shot that found the back of the net. Brown drew the lone assist. Surzycia stopped all eight shots he faced and came up with two dazzling saves robbing Vilmanis with a terrific glove save and then stopping Liam Arnsby (Florida Panthers), with both save coming with less then four minutes remaining in the middle stanza. Both teams had eight shots on net.