Baseball       Flag Football       Football       Inline Hockey       Hockey      3 on 3 Hockey       Lacrosse       School Sports       Soccer       Ultimate Frisbee       More Sports       Magazine

Sting lose first to Greyhounds of season
dave borody February 27th 2011


SAULT STE. MARIE – The law of averages finally caught up with the Sarnia Sting against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

The Greyhounds defeated the Sting 5-2 Sunday night before 4,264 fans at the Essar Centre.

Sarnia went into the game with a perfect 5-0 record against the Greyhounds this season. The teams play two more times this season.

The loss leaves the Sting with a 22-31-4-2 record in the Ontario Hockey League. With only nine games remaining, Sarnia trails Guelph by 15 points in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

One bright spot for the Sting was Nail Yakupov who broke Steven Stamkos’ record for most goals by a rookie in one season with his 43rd tally of the season.

But Yakupov left the game midway through the third period when he appeared to take a stick in the face near the Greyhounds net. Yakupov did not return.

Another bright spot for the Sting was the play of goalie Troy Passingham, who kept his team in the game with several outstanding saves. He was peppered with 47 shots.

The game was close as the teams were tied 1-1 after the first period while the Greyhounds lead 3-2 after the second.

Sting head coach Trevor Letowski said it was a tough game to lose.

“We played hard tonight and it was a good hockey game. That was a positive as it was an intense game. But we sure didn’t get some calls. A guy breaks his stick over Nail and doesn’t even get a penalty. I don’t get that.”

He added, “Five-on-five we were all right. But we took some penalties and gave up a lot of shots. But after the penalties, we didn’t have very good shifts and that set us back.”

Yakupov didn’t take long to set the record. It came at 3:07 of period one when he knocked in his own shot from close range. Tyler Peters gained the lone assist on the play.

“You knew it was just a matter of time before he was going to break the record,” said Letowski. “It’s great for him and he’s in some elite company when you break a Stamkos record. Nail’s a good player and in good company.”

The Greyhounds tied the game at 13:20 while enjoying a two-man advantage as Nick Cousins scored on a rebound after a great stop by Sting goalie Troy Passingham.

Sarnia took a 2-1 lead at 4:27 of period two on a power play when Daniel Broussard drilled home a low slapshot from the point for his second goal of the year. Joe Rogalski assisted.

However the Greyhounds fought back and tied the game at 9:36 when Dylan King scored on a high wrist shot. Sault Ste. Marie took the lead with 53.7 seconds left in the period as Daniel Catenacci’s centering pass went off of Sarnia’s Brandon Francisco and past Passingham. That goal turned out to be the game winner.

The Sting had back-to-back power plays early in the third period and had some good scoring chances, but was unable to beat Greyhounds netminder Matt Murray.

Sault Ste. Marie put the game on ice at 16:32 when Brett Findlay scored off a rebound.

Catenacci scored into an open net in the final minute to complete the scoring.

Sarnia was one-for-seven on the power play and the Greyhounds one-for-five.

So after winning the opening game of the road trip in Barrie, Sarnia lost the next two to Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

Murray faced 30 shots in the Greyhounds goal.

Next action for the Sting is Friday when they host the Greyhounds at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre. It will the only home game for the Sting on the weekend as Saturday night they play the Niagara IceDogs in St. Catharines while Sunday afternoon they go to Erie to take on the Otters.

STING NOTES

- Sarnia was one under the limit of 20 as Brett Ritchie (knee), Jesse Stoughton (knee) and Dean Pawlaczyk (serving the second of a six-game suspension), were all scratched.

- The Greyhounds learned before the game they had been officially eliminated from the playoffs after Guelph topped Kingston 4-2 earlier in the day. It marks the second time in three years Sault Ste. Marie has missed post-season play.

- Yakupov had nine points in four games during the week.

- Sarnia leads Sault Ste. Marie by two points. The two teams are battling to see who will draft third and fourth in the OHL Priority Draft in May.


 

 

Follow Sarniasports on twitter @sarniasports. Get up to the minute news, and live scores

as they happen from local events.




 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                          © 1999 - 2010 Sarniasports.com - All rights reserved                                                   About Us       Contact       Jobs