Sarnia Sting Edged out by Belleville
monday October 20, 2014
By DAVE BORODY
BELLEVILLE – The
Sarnia Sting lost a heartbreaker
Sunday afternoon.
The Belleville
Bulls scored with 29.2 seconds
left in regulation time to eke
out a 3-2 victory over the Sting
before 1,919 fans at the Yardman
Arena.
Remi Elie notched
the game winner when he banged
home a centering pass following
a mad scramble around the Sting
goal.
The loss was a
tough one for the Sting to
swallow as they held a 52-33
edge in shots on goal while
killing off all five power play
opportunities by the Bulls.
Belleville came into the game
with the top-ranked power play.
The loss was
Sarnia’s second straight after
winning four in a row. Their
overall record dropped to
4-5-1-0 in the Ontario Hockey
League.
Despite holding a
20-9 edge in shots on goal,
Sarnia found themselves trailing
2-0 after the first period.
Sting goalie
Justin Fazio got off to a good
start when he stopped a penalty
shot just two minutes into the
game.
But the Bulls
kept coming and took a 2-0 lead
as Brandon Saigeon scored at
6:01 and David Tomasek at 9:23.
The Sting settled
down after that and controlled
much if the play the rest of the
period, but were unable to beat
Bulls rookie goalie, Connor
Hicks.
The Sting finally
solved Hicks on their 23rd shot
of the game, 43 seconds into
period two when Pavel Zacha
skated in over the Bulls blue
line with speed and rifled a
shot over the shoulder of the
Bulls netminder.
Anthony DeAngelo
drew the lone assist on Zacha’s
fourth goal of the year.
The Sting
completely dominated the second
stanza as they outshot the Bulls
17-8. Belleville didn’t get a
shot on goal until the
eight-minute mark.
Sarnia tied the
game 18:01 with their second
power play goal as Nikita
Korostelev wristed a low shot
between the legs of the goalie
from the point. DeAngelo and
Daniel Nikandrov assisted on
Korostelev’s team-leading
seventh goal.
The Sting ran
into penalty problems late in
the third period. Twice the
Bulls enjoyed a two-man
advantage, the first time for 49
seconds and the second time for
1:08. But the Sting did a
wonderful job to kill off those
penalties as Fazio stopped six
shots during the kill.
But just when it
appeared the game was headed for
overtime, Elie scored the game
winner.
Hicks, the Bulls
goalie, was named the game’s
first star. It was only his
second start of the season. He
gave up seven goals in his first
start against Peterborough.
Fazio took second
star honours as he made a number
of point blank saves.
Sarnia and
Belleville will meet again for
the second time in six days when
they collide Friday night at the
RBC Centre. The Sting is also
home Saturday to the Ottawa 67s.
Both games begin at 7:15 p.m.
Tickets for all
Sting games are on sale at the
RBC Box Office, by calling
519-541-1717 or going online at
Sarniasting.com
-
The Sting
went with the same lineup
they did in the previous two
games on the road trip. Not
dressed were Noah Bushnell,
(who served the final game
of a 10-game suspension),
along with Taylor Dupuis,
Connor Schlichting Matt
Ciccarelli, all sidelined
with injuries.
-
Sarnia was
two-for-four on the power
play and Belleville
zero-for-four.
-
Belleville
remained perfect on home ice
at 6-0-0-0 while Sarnia is
2-5-0-1 on the road.
-
Korostelev
now has 11 points over his
last five games and leads
the team in scoring with
seven goals and seven
assists. Zacha is second in
scoring for OHL rookies with
four goals and six assists.
-
On their day
off Saturday, the team took
part in a mini-bowling
tournament. The team of
coaches Trevor Letowski,
Andy Delmore, Chris Lazary
and trainer Chad Oliver took
top honours. The high
individual score went to
Jeff King with a 151.
Letowski was second at 143
while bus driver Roger
Jopson was third at 141.
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