Happy New Year Sarnia Sting!
Goldobin's 4 Goals Help Sting Stop London Knights Streak
Tuesday January 1, 2013
By DAVE BORODY
LONDON – The Sarnia Sting began 2013 in spectacular fashion Tuesday night.
The Sting prevented the London Knights from entering the Canadian Hockey League record books with a gutsy, come-from-behind 6-5 victory in overtime in front of 9,046 stunned fans at the Budweiser Gardens.
London came into the game with 24 straight victories and needed one more to tie the record set by the Kitchener Rangers in 1984-85.
Russian rookie Nikolay Goldobin proved to be the hero for the Sting as he scored at 1:11 of overtime to give Sarnia the thrilling victory. It was Goldobin’s fourth goal of the game.
“I beat the defence and then beat the goalie,” said Goldobin, through his translator and team-mate Daniel Nikandrov. “It was a good game and it was very important to get the win and end the London streak.
He added, “I understand the rivalry between Sarnia and London. We didn’t want them to get the record.”
Nikolay Goldobin - file photo
On the bus ride home TSN showed the winning goal. It brought a loud and long cheer from the players and team officials.
Sting head coach Jacques Beaulieu says Goldobin makes it look easy.
“He’s scores some big goals for us this year. He likes the limelight and wants to be the guy to score that big goal. He certainly doesn’t panic when he has the puck.”
Overager Charlie Sarault described Goldobin in this fashion.
“He’s a good Russian player with slick hands. He has patience with the puck that not too many players at this level have. It’s like he’s a level higher. He’s a magician with the puck.”
Things didn’t start well for the Sting early on as they trailed 3-0 after the first period, 4-3 after 40 minutes and were down 5-3 with less than eight minutes to play in the third period.
But goals by Justice Dundas and Alex Basso 56 seconds apart at 13:21 and 14:17 tied the game at 5-5.
“Like we’ve been saying all season long this is a resilient group of players,” said Beaulieu. “Nothing seems to bother them. I was a little worried during the day how they would respond after the tough loss to London the night before. I thought after the first period I was going to be right, but they proved me wrong.”
He added, “There’s one thing about junior hockey. You never know what is going to happen. Even when we got down 3-0, we were getting plenty of chances. I told the players to stay the course, execute our systems and be disciplined. The kids were excited in the dressing room after the game. They were hooting and hollering.
“We know London is a good team. They had just notched 48 points in their last 24 games. Some teams won’t get 48 points in the entire season. These kids knew what was going on. It’s nice we got another crack at them and ended the streak.”
The opening period saw Sarnia outshoot London 19-13, but trailed 3-0. The Knights scored three goals in three minutes and 28seconds. Max Domi converted a goalmouth pass at 14:43, Brett Welychka scored from the slot at 17:09 and Bo Horvat backhanded home a rebound at 18:11.
Sarnia could muster only seven shots in period two, but scored on three of them, all by Goldobin. He scored his first at 1:19 from a sharp angle, his second at 4:29 with a quick wrist shot, while he completed the hat trick at 16:57 on the power play tipping home a shot from Charlie Sarault.
Prior to Goldobin’s third goal, Chris Tierney scored for London to keep the Knights ahead 4-3 after two periods.
Sarnia had problems generating any offence early in period three before London took a 5-3 lead at 11:35 when Alex Broadhurst knocked in a rebound.
But the Sting comeback began at 13:21 when Dundas scored his fifth of the year on a deflection while Basso tied the game at 14:17, with his fifth of the year ripping home a wrist drive from the face-off dot into the top scorer on the glove side.
The goalie chased Knights goalie Kevin Bailie in favour of Jake Paterson.
Sarnia had to kill a penalty late in overtime in order to force overtime.
The Stng ended it early in the extra session at 1:11. Goldobin picked up a loose puck in the London zone, went around a defenceman and then slipped the puck past Patterson, similar to the goal he scored in Monday’s game in Sarnia.
London finished with a 36-30 edge in shots on goal, but had none in overtime. Despite allowing five goals, J.P. Anderson played another solid game in goal for the Sting.
Sarault said the team was excited with the victory.
“I was on the bench and when the puck went in my heart starting pounding. The guys were hollering and it was a great moment. The thing was we didn’t panic even after getting down in the first period. I felt we had outplayed them. We knew if we kept playing hard we would get a couple of bounces and we did.”
The win improved Sarnia’s overall record to 21-13-0-3 while they are now 12-4-0-1 away from home. The 12 wins are the second highest in the league. London leads with 16 road wins.
The Sting return home Friday night when they host the Windsor Spitfires beginning at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.
Tickets for the game and all remaining home games are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at www.sarniasting.com
The Sting travel to Erie Saturday night and play against Niagara Sunday afternoon in St. Catharines.
- Goldobin was first star with London’s Seth Griffith second star and Nikita Zadorov third star. Goldobin now has 18 goals on the season.
- Defenceman Anthony DeAngelo chipped in with three assists while Reid Boucher had a pair.
- Rearguard Craig Duininck blocked a shot in the second period, hobbled off and did not play in the third period.
- Defenceman David Nemecek played his first game for the Sting since Nov. 24th and had one assist. Rearguard Taki Pantziris notched his first career OHL point assisting on Dundas’ goal.
- Sarnia was one-for-two on the power play and London zero-for-two.
