Windsor Scores Early And Often As They Beat Sarnia 7-2
By Carl Chimenti
The Windsor Spitfires (35-12-2-1) led from start to finish as they beat the Sarnia Sting (18-22-3-6) 7-2, Friday night at the WFCU Centre.
Windsor scored three in the first and twice in each of the second and third periods. They pretty much dominated the game as they out-shot Sarnia 20-1 in the third period and overall 46-19.
Easton Wainwright and Liam Beamish had a goal and an assist each for the Sting. Mitch Young and Ryan Brown had one assist. Both Sting goals came on the power-play in the middle stanza. The two goals brought Sarnia closer at 5-2, but that was as close as they would come tonight.
Nick Surzycia started in net and he played 26:14, before Evan Maillet came in relief to finish off the game. Surzycia had 12 saves on 19 shots and Maillet stopped 27 of 29. On the power-play Sarnia was 2/6 and Windsor 2/7.
The Spitfires swept the three star selections as Noah Morneau was the first star with two goals and three points, Ethan Belchetz the second star (2-1-3), matched Morneau’s totals and Ryan Abraham was the third star with a goal and two assists. Liam Greentree (Los Angeles Kings) added three assists. Joey Costanzo turned away 17 of 19 shots in net for the Spitfires. The Spitfires scored three in the first period including two goals, 19 seconds apart in the first 2:24 of the opening period.
Sarnia Ontario native, Jack Nesbitt scored a power-play goal at the 2:05 mark from Greentree and Belchetz. Carter Hicks added the second goal at 2:24 from AJ Spellacy (Chicago Black Hawks and Cole Davis. Belchetz made it 3-0 at 8:26 from Abraham and Josef Eichler. Sarnia had a couple of near misses in the final few minutes. Windsor out-shot Sarnia 12-7. The Spitfires scored twice in the first 6:14 of the second period before the Sting scored two of their own. Morneau scored shorthanded at 2:22, unassisted. Belchetz made it 5-0 from Morneau and Ilya Protas (Washington Capitals) at 6:14.
Sarnia switched goaltenders with Surzycia being replaced by Maillet.
Soon after Belchetz was given a match major penalty for a slew foot and the Sting capitalized scoring two power-play goals in 26 seconds. Young sent a pass to Wainwright and his wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle beat Costanzo on the glove side at 11:26. Beamish deflected Brown’s shot from in front with Wainwright also assisting at 11:52 to get back in the game after forty minutes of play. Windsor out-shot Sarnia for a second straight period 14-11.
