Good Times Continue for Sarnia Sting
sunday november 30, 2014
By DAVE BORODY
file photo by Pat Brethauer
PLYMOUTH, Mich. – The good times continue for the Sarnia
Sting.
The Sting won their fourth game in a row as they edged the Plymouth
Whalers 4-2, Saturday night in
front of only 1,718 fans at the
Compuware Sports Arena.
With the win, Sarnia improved to 12-11-1-1 in the Ontario Hockey League.
It marks the first time they
have been over the .500 mark
since Oct. 16th when they had a
4-3-1-0 mark.
Sarnia has also won six of their
last seven games.
"It was another big road win - it's exciting," comments Head Coach Trevor
Letowski. "That was arguably our
best 1st period all season. We
came in here and dominated early
on. If not for their goalie, we
could have been up more."
"We lost some flow as the game went on and penalties let them back in the
game. But, we kept battling and
found a way to win," adds
Letowski.
Nikita Korostelev proved to be the hero as he scored the winning goal
with just under six minutes to
play in regulation time.
The Sting got off to a fast start taking a 1-0 lead just 59 seconds into
the game. Daniel Nikandrov did a
wraparound from behind the net
to slip the puck past the
goalie. Anthony DeAngelo and
Alexandre Renaud picked up
assists.
Nikandrov scored his second of the game and seventh of the year at 14:37
on a shorthanded breakaway. He
outraced the Whalers defender
and fired home a low shot.
The Sting did a great job defensively, allowing just five shots on goal
in the opening frame.
Plymouth cut the lead to 2-1 at
8:36 of period two on a bit of a
lucky bounce. A point shot was
stopped by Sting goalie Justin
Fazio, but the puck then bounced
off Will Bitten of the Whalers
and into the net.
The Whalers came out hard to start the third period forcing Fazio to
making several solid saves.
But just after the Sting had killed off a second consecutive Whalers
power play, Plymouth tied the
game at 9:52 when Matt Mistele
sent home a high wrist shot from
the slot.
Korostelev put the Sting ahead 3-2 at 14:07 with his team-high 14th goal
of the season. He took advantage
of a Whalers giveaway to cut in
front of the net and fire the
puck past the goalie.
Plymouth pulled their goalie
with a minute left and had two
good scoring chances that were
stopped by Fazio.
Brandon Lindberg iced the game for Sarnia scoring into an open net with
5.2 seconds left. It was his
eighth goal of the year.
Fazio recorded his first win in goal since mid-October with a solid
performance-turning aside 30 of
32 shots he faced. Alex
Nedeljkovic took the loss as he
made 27 stops.
On Fazio, Letowski comments, "It was nice to see him play well. He hasn't
played a ton for us lately and
was coming off a tough loss
[against Erie]. He made some big
saves tonight. It doesn't
surprise me, he's a gamer."
Sarnia
finished zero-for-two on the
power play while Plymouth was
zero-for-five.
The Sting will play their third game in as many days when they host the
Kingston Frontenacs Sunday
afternoon beginning at 4:05 p.m.
at the RBC Centre. It will be
Kingston’s lone appearance of
the season in Sarnia.
There will also be a special autograph session with the players after the
game in the Hive. Children’s
tickets are only $6 for the
game.
Tickets for all Sting home games are on sale daily at the RBC Centre Box
Office, by calling 519-541-1717
or going online at
www.Sarniasting.com
-
Nikandrov was first star with Bitten of the Whaler second star and Fazio
third star.
-
The Sting went with the same lineup as the previous two games. Pavel
Zacha was serving the third
game of a six-game
suspension. He is eligible
to return Dec. 7th against
Sault Ste. Marie. Jakob
Chychrun, Matt Ciccarelli
and Connor Schlichting are
all injured.
-
Sarnia and Plymouth meet five more times this season.
-
Kevin Spinozzi leads the Sting in plus-minus at plus-14.
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