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The Sarnia Sting has played almost half their
regular season and yet they have not played one of
their division and conference rivals once.
But that is about to all change.
The Sting opens the second half of their Ontario
Hockey League season on Wednesday night when they
take on the Plymouth Whalers.
Game time is 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.
It will be the first of six meetings between the two
rivals. They will play five more times during a
stretch of five weeks in January and the first week
of February.
“It’s weird,” said overage Sting defenceman Brent
Sullivan, when asked about not having played the
Whalers yet.
“When the Whalers are a division rival, you would
have thought we would have played them by now.
Somebody asked me recently about a player on the
Plymouth team and I didn’t know anything about them
because we haven’t seen them yet.”
Sullivan added, “playing them a lot of the next
month or so should develop a bit of a hate for them
and that always creates a better rivalry.”
Before Tuesday’s game (Plymouth is in Erie Tuesday),
Plymouth held a four-point lead over the Sting with
each team having played 33 games.
Sarnia is currently one game under the .500 mark at
14-15-3-1. They are coming off an emotional 5-4
overtime win over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in
their final game before the Christmas Break.
“We’ve had our highs and lows over the first half,”
said Sullivan. “We are still a fairly young team so
we have to take the positives from the first half.
We are almost a .500 team in a tough Western
Conference. We need a good second half and surprise
some people.”
Sullivan talked about the positives.
“One of the high points is the fact we’ve been
competitive in most games. Even during our five-game
losing streak early in the year, we only lost those
games by one or two goals. Another positive is we’ve
shown we can be a resilient team. We’ve battled back
in several games to pull off a victory.”
But Sullivan says there have been some low points.
“We seem to want to give up a lead early in many
games and that makes things that much tougher. We
need to play a full 60 minutes. We need to get some
secondary scoring and not rely on just one line. We
also need to keep the puck out of our net and that
comes with good team defence.”
Sullivan added, “I think we have matured as a team
over the first half. If we play a team game and not
be individuals, we give ourselves a good chance of
winning. We are a close-knit group and the team
chemistry is there. We need to get on a hot streak.”
As for the second half of the season, Sullivan says
it’s not going to be easy.
“We are going to be in a battle right until March
19. We certainly can’t have any long winless
streaks. What would really help would be to string a
few wins together. It just means every game and
every weekend is so important. We can’t take any
nights off.”
The Sting will have rookie sensation Nail Yakupov in
their lineup this week. He was not named to the
Russian team for the World Juniors and practiced
with the Sting earlier this week.
Defenceman Joe Rogalski is listed as day-to-day as
he continues to recover from a concussion suffered
Dec. 5. Forward Brett Ritchie is expected to play
after missing two games with a hand injury.
Garrett Hooey is with the Ontario team and the world
under-17 tournament in Winnipeg while Nick Latta is
at the World Juniors in Buffalo with Team Germany.
Kale Kerbashian leads the Sting in scoring with 21
goals and 28 assists for 49 points. He ranks sixth
overall in OHL scoring as Jason Akeson of Kitchener
leads with 15 goals and 45 assists for 60 points.
Two Ottawa players follow, as Shane Prince is two
points back with 19 goals and 38 assists while Tyler
Toffoli has 29 goals and 27 assists for 56 points.
Yakupov remains the top scorer for OHL rookies with
22 goals and 25 assists for 47 points. Alex
Galchenyuk is third in Sting scoring with nine goals
and 24 assists for 33 points. Tyler Peters is next
with 32 points on 14 goals and 18 assists while
Brandon Francisco and Joe Rogalski round out the top
five with 18 points each.
John Cullen has played 1,249 minutes in goal for the
Sting and has a 3.60 goals against average, one
shutout and a .893 save percentage. Teammate Brandon
Hope has played 759 minutes and sports a 4.58 g.a.a.
and a .875 save percentage.
Scott Wedgewood has seen the bulk of work in goal
for Plymouth, 1,602 minutes and has a 2.51 g.a.a.,
two shutouts and a .917 save percentage. Matt
Mahalak has played just 383 minutes and has a 4.54
g.a.a.
Stefan Noesen is the top scorer for Plymouth with 15
goals and 21 assists for 36 points. Robbie Czarnik
is second with 32 points on 13 goals and 19 assists
while Tyler Brown is third with 11 goals and 16
assists for 27 points.
STING NOTES
- After tonight’s game Sarnia will return
home Friday, (New Year’s Eve) to host the London
Knights for the first time this year. Note the
starting time is 4 p.m. The two clubs meet New
Year’s Day in London at 7 p.m.
- Of Sarnia’s 35 remaining games, 17 are at
home and 18 on the road. But 11 of those home games
come over the next 16 games.
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