Surzycia Stops 38 Shots, Sting Fall 5-3 To Knights
By Carl Chimenti
Nick Surzycia put on a dazzling performance in net with 38 saves, but in the end it was the special teams that were key as the London Knights (14-4-0-0) beat the Sarnia Sting (7-10-1-3) 5-3 Friday night at the Canada Life Place.
Surzycia saves were of the highlight variety especially in the opening period, where he turned aside all but one of the 21 shots he faced and was named as the third star. In all he faced 43 London shots, as the Knights extended their winning streak to ten games. Sarnia lead 2-1 through-out most of the second period, but two late goals, from Easton Cowan (Toronto Maple Leafs), his second power-play goal of the night at 16:01 and William Nicholl’s (Edmonton Oilers) shorthanded marker at 19:51 sent the Knights to the second intermission with their first lead of the game.
Jacob Julien (Winnipeg Jets) scored what prove to be the winning goal early in the third period at 4:41. Sarnia did not give up and with a sixth attacker, Filak scored his second of the game and 7th of the year at 19:30, only to see the Knights answer back nine seconds later on Julien’s second of the game at 19:39. The Sting welcomed back Beckham Edwards and Alessandro Di lorio to the line-up, following the U-17 Challenge in Sarnia last week.
Edwards scored a goal, his 7th and Di lorio added an assist in tonight’s game. Mitch Young, Kaeden Johnston and JJ Franceschetti also contributed one assist each. For Franceschetti, it was his first career OHL point. Cowan’s two goals continued his incredible point streak to 50 games, joining only three other players to reach that plateau in the Canadian Hockey league.
Cowan was selected as the second star. Sam Dickinson (San Jose Sharks) and Denver Barkey (Philadelphia Flyers) assisted on four of the five London goals, with Barkey being named the first star of the game. Knight’s rookie goaltender Alexsei Medvedev stopped 20 of 23 shots. The 43 London shots marked the seventh time this season that a Sting goaltender has faced 40 or more shots in a game, including a season high 45 shots in the last game played (Nov. 9th) against the Erie Otters. Sarnia went 0/2 and London 2/3 on the power-play.
Surzycia was a rock in front of the Sting net as he stopped 20 of 21 first period shots, including point blank saves on numerous London players. Sarnia started fast as Filak scored early at 2:51, coming up with the puck at his blue line, freezing a Knight defender and picked up steam as he made his way to the London net with a couples of nice dekes, before letting go a hard shot beating Medvedev on the glove side for an unassisted goal, his sixth of the year. London dominated the rest of the period and tied the game 71 seconds later as Cowan scored a power-play goal from Barkey and Dickinson at 4:02. From there Surzycia took over and shut down the Knights high powered offense for the remainder of the opening frame. Sarnia was better defensively in the second period, holding the Knights to just 11 shots on goal. The Sting grabbed a 2-1 lead at 9:29. Franceschetti was able to feed a short pass off the wall to Johnston, setting up a two on none break, and Johnston sent a pass to Edwards, who went upstairs to score his 7th of the year.
London special teams scored twice from there as Cowan added his second power-play goal from Dickinson and Barkey at 16:01, and followed that up with 8.2 seconds left, with a shorthanded goal from Nicholl at 19:51, with both Barkey and Dickinson assisting for the Knights. London out-shot Sarnia 11-9.
