The Lambton AAA Minor Midget Jr. Sting opened their Alliance Hockey League season over the weekend with two games, the first on the road against the Huron Perth Lakers and then back at home hosting the Brantford 99ers..
In the first game of the season the team traveled to Stratford to take on the Huron Perth Lakers and came away with a 5 - 1 loss. Both sides were even after the first period with 1 apiece. Logan Scott scored the first goal of the season for the Jr Sting on a power play assisted by Alec Dekoning and Brock Perry.
The Lakers went on and added three goals in the second and a single in the third. Holdyn Lansink scored two goals for the Lakers and singles by Jacob Finlayson, Shaun Pickering and AP player Dalton Carde.
The Lakers outshot the Jr Sting 35 - 24. Wyatt Nicholson earned the with making 23 saves, Jr Sting netminder Nolan Hakr made 30 saves in the loss.
On Sunday the Jr. Sting hosted the Brantford 99ers at the RBC Center that ended in a 5 - 5 tie.
"It's a disappointment with the tie, twice we had a pretty sound lead." Head Coach Jeff Perry said "But it's a process and we are going to have to have some bumps along the way here."
In the first period Alec Dekoning scored the first goal shorthanded after shooting the puck out of the corner that bounced off a Brantford player into the net. Brantford tied things up in the second with Dustin Barr scoring. Lambton regained the lead on power play that was set up on a perfect play by Dekoning who passed it out front from behind the net to Marco Mini who slapped it into the glove side opening for the goal. Brock Perry earned an assist on the play. After two periods of play the Jr. Sting had a 2 - 1 lead.
In the third period Lambton went up 4 - 1 after adding two goals the first by John Fazio assisted by Franco Sproviero and the second by Dawson Cook from Perry and Dekoning. The Lakers rebounded and scored three goals by Dustin Burr, Evan Bidenti (PP) and Nathan Edwards. With just under 4 minutes remaining Marco Mini scored an unassisted goal to regain the lead for the Jr Sting but Brantford answered back with 1:09 left on the clock on a power play to equal the score with Dusting Barr scoring his third goal of the game.
"Timely penalties were a factor." Perry said "I think that leading 4 - 2 then taking a penalty that allowed the game to get back to 4 - 3 real quick allowed a momentum shift."
Lambton outshot Brantford 35 - 32. Kaden Fulcher made a total of 27 saves in the game, Brantford netminder Jack Stockdale made 30 saves.
"We had great success the weekend before [referring to the Toronto Titans Tournament] by keeping our goals 3 and under. This weekend we got off the page, but nothing that can't be corrected." Perry said
The Lambton Minor Midgets are back in action next weekend with two home games. On Saturday September 21 the Jr Sting will host the Chatham-Kent Cyclones and on Sunday Sun County Panthers. Both games at RBC Center at 1:00 pm.
