Minor Bantam MD’s Win Road Game

   The Sarnia Sting Minor Bantam MD team headed to London to take on last year’s league winners London West. The MD team always uses London West as a measuring stick for their progress and had closed the gap last year playing them very competitively. The game at the Kinsmen Arena last night was no different.

    Determined to continue their evolution as a team and build on their season opening win the Sting came out strong. On the opening shift Sarnia was able to get the puck deep into their opponents end and create several good shots on goal. Noah Melanson made the start in goal for Sarnia and established early that he was going to be on his game when he was tested. On one particular shift the West had Sarnia trapped in their zone generating a couple of quality chances that were turned away by Melanson. Sting defender Kevin Durco gathered up one of the rebounds determined to get the puck out and circled behind his own goal before taking off up ice. With his passing options disappearing as his teammates made a line change he drove towards the London goal putting a nice toe drag move on the last defender.  He fired a shot that beat the West goalie cleanly putting the Sting up 1 - 0. Sarnia withstood some late pressure to remain ahead at the end of the first.

     The second period saw the play and opportunities spread pretty evenly between the two teams. You could sense the need for Sarnia to get a second goal as London gained momentum. Drew Morgan, John Filia and Jordan Pavey all had quality chances stopped by the London goalie. Melanson held the fort for the Sting and the second period ended with Sarnia hanging onto their one goal lead.

     The third period saw London come out checking hard and trying to get the equalizer. After multiple attempts to get the puck out of their own end, defender Cullen Smith made a great first pass to Jason Braun. Braun feathered a nice pass to Zach Veenendaal who gained the offensive blue line with speed, using the opposing defender as a screen, he ripped a beautiful wrist shot past the surprised London West goalie to put Sarnia up 2 – 0. The timing of this goal proved to be very important as London scored less than 2 minutes later to narrow the score to 2 – 1. London continued to press after that goal and pulled their goalie with a minute to go to turn up the heat. After a few scrambles in front of the Sting goal the defense was able to lift the puck out of their own end. Rory Jones collected the puck near center ice and rambled his way towards the open London goal. He appeared to have the puck knocked away at the last minute by a pursuing defender but somehow knocked the puck in from a difficult angle to restore the two goal lead. At the final buzzer the Sting had won the game 3 – 1. There were no penalties called in this well officiated game that was both competitive for the players and entertaining for the spectators.

   The Minor Bantam MD’s are back in action on Monday Oct. 18/10 when they host the London Bandits – Orange at the Sarnia Arena, 7 P.M. puck drop. Go Sting Go!