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Photo's courtesy of Allan
Kirkland of
www.bemadesign.com
 One
of the biggest crowds of the season got to see one
of the most dynamic young players in the Ontario
Hockey League put on a dazzling offensive show.
Nail Yakupov scored two goals and assisted on two
others in leading the Sarnia Sting to a 5-3 victory
over the Subury Wolves to the delight of 4,023 fans,
Monday afternoon at the RBC Centre.
Yakupov was back in the lineup after missing two
games with a concussion. But he showed no signs of
any rust as he not only had four points, but also
was stopped on two clear-cut breakaways.
His two goals gives him 41 on the season and he is
now just one goal shy of tying Steven Stamkos for
the team’s rookie record of 42 games in a season.
With 12 games remaining Yakupov is certain to break
the mark.
He also becomes the 10th player in Sting history to
score at least 40 or more goals in a season.
“We got a big effort from Nail today as he displayed
a lot of energy,” said Sting interim head coach
Trevor Letowski. “He just enjoys the game like a
little kid. I know when he missed those two games it
was tough on him. He has a passion for the game and
loves to score.”
Yakupov, who could barely speak a few words of
English when he arrived in Sarnia last August, now
has a pretty good grasp of the language.
“It was a big win, we played good,” said Yakupov.
“When I scored two goals it gave me more energy and
I felt good. It was very hard to sit out. I didn’t
like that.”
When told he was one goal shy of tying Stamkos,
Yakupov simply replied, “I want to score goals every
game.”
The Sting dominated the game for two periods as they
jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period and
held what appeared to be a commanding 5-1 advantage
after 40 minutes. But the Sting took four minor
penalties in the third period allowing the Wolves to
score a couple of goals and make things interesting.
“A win is a win and I’m happy to get the two
points,” said Letowski. “It was kind of strange in
the fact we haven’t had a lead like that in awhile.
Our goal in the third period was to keep pushing and
play the same way. But we took some penalties and
that took away our momentum. We let them back in the
game.
“They came at us pretty hard in the final 10
minutes. But overall I’m happy to get the win and
now it’s time to go out and win some road games.”
Yakupov opened the scoring just over seven minutes
into the game when he cut in front of the goal and
slipped the puck past the netminder. Six minutes
later Yakupov was at it again. This time he
displayed patience as he cut across the goal crease,
waited for the goalie to go down, and fired a wrist
shot into an open net.
The Sting blew open the game with three goals in
less than three minutes early in period two.
Tyler Peters scored his 19th goal of the year at the
two-minute mark knocking in a centering pass from
Daniel Broussard. The goal ended a streak of 17
games where Peters had not scored.
A minute later Brandon Francisco banged home a
rebound off a Craig Hottot shot for his 13th goal of
the year. That goal chased Wolves starting netminder
Alain Valiquette in favour of Jacob Riley.
Valiquette allowed four goals on 15 shots.
Sarnia’s fifth goal came at 4:57, another
highlight-reel goal by the Sting’s other outstanding
rookie Alex Galchenyuk. He carried the puck inside
the Wolves zone, beat a defenceman and then showed
his skill skating in and backhanding the puck past
the goalie. It was his 21st marker of the year.
The Wolves finally beat Sting netminder Troy
Passingham at 14:49 on a power play when Josh
McFadden scored on a low slapshot from the point.
Sudbury scored the only two goals of period three as
Andrey Kuchin slipped the puck past Passingham on a
wraparound at 8:20 while McFadden scored his second
of the game at 17:48 on a point shot. Both goals
came seconds after Sarnia had killed off a Wolves
power play.
Sarnia finished zero-for-two with the man advantage
while Sudbury was one-for-seven.
The Wolves finished with a 32-27 edge in shots on
goal, including 13-4 in the third period.
The line of Yakupov, Galchenyuk and Peters finished
with 10 points.
The win pushed Sarnia’s overall record to 21-29-4-2
and 15-13-1-2. But they remain 13 points out of a
playoff spot with 12 games left as Guelph defeated
Sault Ste. Marie 10-4.
Sarnia will hit the road for three games this
weekend as they play at Barrie Thursday night, go to
Sudbury Friday night and are at Sault Ste. Marie
Sunday night. Their next home game is Friday, March
4 against Sault Ste. Marie. They have just three
homes games left in the regular season.
STING NOTES
- Yakupov was first star with Galchenyuk second star
and McFadden of the Wolves third star. Yakupov now
has 41 goals and 41 assists for 82 points while
Galchenyuk has 21 goals and 42 assists for 63
points.
- Sting forward Brett Ritchie had his 14-game
consecutive points streak snapped. Ritchie had 13
goals and 10 assists during those 14 games.
- Sarnia was without forwards Jesse Stoughton (knee)
and J.C. Campagna (healthy). Stoughton is on
crutches, but says he could play again this year.
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting
games both home and away and also does features for
the Sting Website.
Follow Sarniasports on twitter
@sarniasports.
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