courtesy
of Sarnia Sting - photos by
Metcalfe
Photography
SARNIA, ON - The Sarnia
Sting earned their first win of the 2015-16 Regular Season on Sunday
afternoon - ousting the Kingston Frontenacs 4-3 in a shootout.
Scoring the shootout winner
for the Sting was Assistant Captain, Jakob Chychrun. Nikita Korostelev also
buried his shootout attempt for the Sting, and Justin Fazio turned aside 2
of 3 shots faced.
Fazio went the distance in
goal for Sarnia on Sunday afternoon, stopping 31 of 34 shots on goal. With
the win, the Sarnia native improved to 1-1-0-0 on the season.
Troy Lajeunesse, Anthony
Salinitri and Daniel Nikandrov were the goal scorers during regulation.
Conor McGlynn had two goals
and Robbie Burt also scored once for Kingston.
The Frontenacs, out-shot
the Sting 34-29. Kingston goaltender Lucas Peressini stopped 25 shots.
Sarnia scored the only goal
of the opening period at 5:29. Following a great penalty kill, Daniel
Nikandrov notched his second goal in as many games with a wrist shot from
the high slot. The goal was unassisted.
Kingston had a number of
scoring chances but some solid goaltending, along with an outstanding
defensive effort kept the Frontenacs off the board.
Fazio made three terrific
saves, first on a shorthanded breakaway from Conor McGlynn and later he
managed to shut the door with a great skate save on Austin Grzenia. He came
through again stopping a back hand attempt from Ted Nichol, from the right
side of the net.
The defensive play came
from Sarnia defensemen Jakob Chychrun, who took advantage of his long reach
to break up a potential Kingston breakaway.
Sarnia got into some early penalty trouble in the second period and
on the tail end of a two man advantage Kingston tied the game on a goal from
rookie Robbie Burt, his first career OHL goal, at 3:21.
Sarnia went back in front
less than four minutes later on a nice three way passing play. Zachary Cole
picked up the puck near center ice and feed a streaking Alex Renaud, from
his back hand Renaud centered a perfect pass to Lajeunesse in front, and he
was able to one time the pass for his first goal of the season.
The Sting increased their
lead to 3-1 on the power play at 16:59. Salinitri scored his first goal of
the season and continued where he left off during pre-season play, when he
led the OHL with six goals. Jeff King and Patrick White drew the assists.
Nikita Korostelev brought
the crowd out of their seats in the final minute as he undressed the
Frontenacs defensemen and went in alone. On his back hand from between his
legs, tried to put the puck past Peressini, who denied him with his stick.
Kingston tied the game with
a pair of goals in the third period as McGlynn netted both, at 7:35 and
again at 17:48 to send the game to overtime. It was a chance for the fans to
witness the new three on three overtime format for the first time during the
regular season.
Both goaltenders make key
saves in the extra frame. Chychrun had the best chance as he rang the iron
with less than two minutes left. Sarnia was called for delay of game in the
final minute and the teams went to four on three. Nothing was decided and
the game went to a shoot-out.
Sarnia outscored Kingston 2-1 for the win and evened their record
to 1-1. Korostelev and Chychrun were the goal scores.
The three stars – third
star, McGlynn for Kingston, second star, Lajeunesse for the Sting and
Salinitri was named the first star for Sarnia.
Sarnia will head north next week for their first road trip with
stops in Barrie, October 1st, North Bay, on the 2nd and will finish on
Sunday the 4th, in Sudbury. The next home game will feature the new Hamilton
Bulldogs on October 9th.
