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 The
Sarnia Sting let a valuable two points slip through
their fingers Thursday night.
But what’s even more painful is the way they did it.
The Sting blew a 5-2 third period lead and lost 6-5
to the Plymouth Whalers in front of 2,319 fans at
the RBC Centre.
The loss was Sarnia’s fourth straight and eighth in
their last nine Ontario Hockey League games. They
remain 10 points back of eighth place Erie in the
Western Conference with 20 games to play.
When Nail Yakupov of the Sting scored his second
goal of the game at 3:34 of period three, it
appeared the Sting had a comfortable 5-2 advantage.
But the Whalers scored three times in just under
four minutes to tie the game at 5-5 by the
nine-minute mark.
Dario Trutman then scored the game winner with 36.6
seconds in regulation time on what looked to be an
innocent shot from the point.
“Every loss is tough,” said Sting head coach Dave
MacQueen, when asked if this was the toughest loss
of the season. “Especially when we played the way we
did and did a lot of good things for 45 minutes or
so. I’m sure they are devastated right now. They are
a fragile group.
“It’s almost like we are waiting for bad things to
happen. We got back on our heels and couldn’t
recover.”
MacQueen continued, “We started off the game well
and bounced back after a tough weekend. We gave them
all they could and held the 5-2 lead. But they are a
good hockey club and knew they would come hard. When
they scored their third goal, you could just feel it
on the bench.
“When you wait for bad things to happen they usually
do. Even though we had the lead the heads went down
and we started to grip our sticks too tight. You
can’t play that way. Broken plays and bad bounces
led to their goals. We sure scored enough goals to
win.”
James Livingston lead Plymouth with two goals while
Jamie Devane, Robbie Czarnik and Peter Neal had the
other goals. Two of the six goals were shorthanded
markers.
Yakupov finished with two goals and one assist and
now has a team-high 37 goals on the season. Yakupov
appeared to have a target on his chest from the
Whalers.
“He’s going to have to get used to it,” said
MacQueen. “Plymouth is a big, strong team who play
physical. But Nail didn’t back down or shy away.
He’s a competitor.”
Kale Kerbashian had one goal, his 27th of the year,
along with three assists. Alex Galchenyuk (17th) and
Craig Hottot (11th), were the other Sting marksmen.
Sarnia jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period and
held a 4-2 advantage after 40 minutes.
Matt Mahalak was the winning goalie making 28 saves
while Troy Passingham made 38 stops for the Sting.
Sarnia was three-for-eight on the power play while
Plymouth was zero-for-five.
The Sting go right back at it Friday night when they
host the league’s top team, the Mississauga St.
Michael’s Majors at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre. The
Majors defeated Sarnia 7-1 at home last Sunday.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to keep
going. We need to come ready to play, as St.
Michael’s likes to put you down early and keep you
down. We need to be more responsible with the puck
and play with desperation,” MacQueen said.
STING NOTES
- Livingston was first star with Kerbashian second
star and Hottot third star.
- Kerbashian now has at least one point in 13
straight games. During the stretch he has six goals
and 15 assists.
- For the second time this year, Yakupov has been
named OHL rookie of the month. In 12 games in
January, Yakupov had 11 goals and eight assists
along with a career-high 11-game point streak. He
had five multi-point games. Yakupov was rookie of
the month back in October.
- Plymouth leads the season series 3-2 with the
sixth and final meeting between the two clubs
Saturday night in Plymouth.
- Sarnian B.J. Crombeen played his first game for
the Whalers since being acquired in a trade from
Owen Sound.
- Sarnia is now 12-12-1-2 on home ice.
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