By DAVE BORODY
The Sarnia Sting got their revenge on the North Bay Battalion
Friday night. The Sting
scored three times in
the second period and
went on to defeat the
Battalion 5-2 in front
of 2,697 fans at the RBC
Centre. The win was
Sarnia’s sixth in a row,
their longest winning
streak in the Ontario
Hockey League in almost
three years. They have
also won eight of their
past nine games to
improve to 14-11-1-1
overall.
Back on Nov. 2nd the Sting enjoyed a 5-2 lead in the second period
against the Battalion
only to have North Bay
rebound and take an 8-5
victory.
That wasn’t going to happen in the re-match.
“It was a well-played game on our part,” said Sting head coach,
Trevor Letowski. “That’s
a good team over there
and they came into
tonight’s game with the
lowest goals against in
the league.
“But we really pushed them. We worked well when we had the puck
down low behind the goal
line. It was fun to
watch.”
Letowski was pleased with the fact everyone contributed.
“We rolled four lines again and guys are stepping up and scoring
big goals. Everyone is
contributing and that’s
a good feeling.”
North Bay opened the
scoring at 6:29 of
period one when Mike
Amadio deflected home a
point shot.
The Sting tied the game two minutes later when Kevin Spinozzi’s
slapshot from center ice
was missed by the North
Bay goalie. Spinozzi
said the last time he
scored from center ice
was back in minor
hockey.
“It’s funny how that goal kind of turned the game around,” said
Letowski. “I was a
little concerned with
our start. We were back
on our heels for a few
minutes. We got a lucky
break and it changed the
momentum.”
Sarnia took the lead for
good at 13:10 when
Stephen Pierog notched
his first goal in a
Sting uniform as he
drilled home a low
slapshot from the top of
the face-off circle.
Brandon Lindberg and
Nikita Korostelev drew
the assists.
The first 15 minutes of period two were cautious from both sides
until the Sting exploded
for three goals in less
than five minutes to put
the game out of reach.
Patrick White scored what turned out to be the game winner at 15:05
with another
highlight-reel goal.
After taking a long pass
from Anthony DeAngelo,
White beat the Battalion
defenceman and slipped
the puck between the
goalies legs.
It was White’s sixth goal of the year.
Troy Lajeunesse made it 3-1 at 17:36 when he knocked in a rebound
off a DeAngelo point
shot for his seventh of
the year. Noah Bushnell
also assisted.
The three-goal explosion was capped off with 26.2 seconds left in
the period as Alex
Renaud sent home a loose
puck after an Alex Black
point shot. Daniel
Nikandrov also assisted
on Renaud’s third of the
season.
Miles Liberati scored North Bay’s second goal five minutes into
period three, but that
was as close as they
could get to the Sting.
Taylor Dupuis continued his fine play in goal for the Sting as he
turned aside 16 of 18
shots he faced. Dupuis
has now won his last
seven starts and during
the stretch has allowed
just 15 goals.
Letowski was happy again with the effort of Dupuis, but praised the
entire team for allowing
just 18 shots to a team
that came into the game
with a 14-5-4-1 record.
Sarnia fired 31 shots at a pair of North Bay
goalies.
The Sting had a new player in their lineup in Chase Campbell, a
third round draft pick
in the 2014 OHL Priority
Selection. He signed
with the team earlier
this week. Campbell
played on a line with
White and Jordan Kyrou.
“It was a tough spot for him playing his first game against a big
team, but he was fine.
Chase is a big part of
our future. He hunts the
puck well and has good
speed and skill. He has
a bright future ahead of
him,” said Letowski.
Campbell is playing with
the Waterloo Siskins (Jr.
B) and has 27 points in
24 games.
Only four penalties were called, just one to the Sting. There were
no power play goals.
The Sting resume action Saturday night when they travel to Saginaw
to battle the Spirit.
They return home Sunday
afternoon to take on the
powerful Sault Ste.
Marie Greyhounds
beginning at 4:05 p.m.
The game will mark the
17th annual Teddy Bear
Toss.
Fans are encouraged to bring a stuff animal to the game and then
toss it onto the ice
after the Sting scores
their first goal. The
bears will be collected
and distributed to local
charities in the
community.
Tickets for all home games are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office,
by calling 519-541-1717
or going online at
www.Sarniasting.com
.
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Pierog was first star with White second star and Black third star.
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DeAngelo and Nikandrov had two assists each. DeAngelo and
Korostelev now share
the team scoring
lead with 29 points
apiece.
-
Sarnia improved to 6-4-0-1 at home against a team who came into the
game with one of the
best road records in
the league at
7-2-1-0.
-
Sting defenceman Josh Chapman took a slapshot off his helmet in the
second period. He
lay on the ice for a
couple of minutes
before going off on
his own power. He
did return to the
game.
-
Not dressed for the Sting were Pavel Zacha, Vladislav Kodola, Jakob
Chychrun, Connor
Schlichting and Matt
Ciccarelli.
-
White has two game winning goals in the teams past four games.