By DAVE PAUL
The Sarnia Sting didn't get
a win, Thursday night
against the Kitchener
Rangers. But they had to
feel pretty good about the
single point they picked up,
nonetheless.
As has been their habit
lately, the Sting rallied
late to tie a game, once
again foiling all Sting fans
who like to leave the RBC
Centre with around five
minutes left to play in the
third period.
This time it was Pavel Zacha
providing the heroics
scoring early in the third
period to put the Sting on
the board, after the Rangers
had taken a 2-0 lead, then
scoring again on a
remarkably similar play to
tie the game 2-2, at 19:03,
with Sting goalie Taylor
Dupuis on the bench for the
extra attacker.
"At the end of the day, it
was Pavel Zacha who kind of
took over the game in the
third period," said Sting
coach Trevor Letowski, when
asked about his team's
latest comeback.
Though the Rangers scored to
win the game, 3-2, in
overtime, Letowski said he
was proud of his team's
play.
"That was a gutsy effort. We
played hard for 60 minutes,"
said Letowski. "We knew it
would be a dogfight. ...
There weren't a lot of
scoring chances for either
side. It was a fairly
evenly-played game. We just
came up a little short in
overtime."
The Rangers seemed to be
playing with a little extra
jump early in the game,
forging a 12-3 lead in shots
on goal at one point in the
first period.
But the Sting battled back
and, by the early stages of
the second period, shots
were 13-13 (Kitchener wound
up outshooting the Sting
overall, 29-27).
Still the game was scoreless
until late in the middle
period when Kitchener's
Darby Llewellyn buried a
shot after being set up in
the slot.
Brandon Robinson made it 2-0
early in the third on a
controversial rebound goal
that bounced in off his
skate. After a review, the
goal was allowed to stand.
But, less than 30 seconds
later, Zacha made it 2-1
when he blew past a
Kitchener defenceman on his
off wing and backhanded a
shot past Rangers goalie
Jake Paterson.
Zacha's tying goal was
nearly identical except that
he was knocked down by the
Rangers defender shortly
after getting away the
backhand shot. The puck then
bounced off the other
Rangers defenceman, Liam
Maaskant and into the goal.
Zacha never saw the puck
enter the net as he was
actually in the process of
crashing into the back
boards when the puck went
in.
Frank Hora got the winner
for the Rangers, cutting
across the front of the goal
and sliding the puck past
Dupuis.
The Sting will be back in
action on Friday night,
hosting Plymouth.
