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Major show no mercy to Sting in 6-3 victory
dave borody February 4th, 2011


The best team in the Ontario Hockey League showed little or no mercy on one of the struggling teams Friday night at the RBC Centre.

The Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors shot out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and coasted to a 6-3 victory over the Sarnia Sting in front of 2,973 fans at the RBC Centre.

It marked the second time in less than a week the Majors have defeated Sarnia. They won 7-1 on home ice last Sunday.

“They play the game the right way,” said Sting head coach Dave MacQueen, when asked about the Majors.

“They just keep going and keep coming at you. They are four lines deep. We can learn from them. We showed video of them earlier in the week.”

He added, “we would have had to play a perfect game and they would have had to have an off night in order to beat them. They are that good. And it’s nothing fancy. They work hard, compete like crazy, don’t take any shifts off and take pucks hard to the net.”

MacQueen did see some positives from his team who has dropped five in a row and eight of their last nine games.

“We scored a couple of goals in the third period and showed we didn’t quit. I liked the way Nathan (Chiarlitti) stepped in when one of our guys got hit. And Brandon Hope battled in goal. He competes like crazy. There was a lot of traffic in front of him all night long and he battled trying to see the shots.”

Sarnia was outshot 45-23 marking the fifth straight game the Sting has allowed 40 or more shots.

It took only five seconds on the first St. Michael’s power play when they scored their first goal just over four minutes into the game. They built up a 5-0 lead before the Sting scored their first goal in the final minute of period two. The lead was 6-1 before the Sting scored two late goals in the third period.

Three of the Majors six goals came on the power play.

J.C. Campagna led the Sting with two goals and one assist. The second year forward, who has struggled this season, now has seven goals on the season.

Nail Yakupov also figured in on all three goals as he notched his 38th of the year to go along with two assists. Yakupov, who has six points in his last two games, is now just four goals shy of the team rookie record of 42 held by Steven Stamkos.

Alex Galachenyuk had a pair of assists to give him four points in his last two games.

Rob Flick was tops for the Majors with two goals while Justin Shugg, Michael D’Orazio, Brett Flemming and Marc Cantin had one goal each.

The Majors finished three-for-six on the power play while Sarnia was zero-for-six.

St. Michael’s leads the Eastern Conference with a 39-8-0-2 record.

The Sting’s record is now 18-24-4-2. They complete the week on Saturday night when they travel to Plymouth to battle the Whalers.

“We are going to be even more shorthanded with Craig Hottot getting a game misconduct,” said MacQueen. “We have to go in there, keep it simple and compete like crazy. We also need to get off to a good start.”

Sarnia’s next home game is Thursday when they host the London Knights at 7:05 p.m.

STING NOTES

- Flick was first star while Maxim Kitsyn (two assists), who the Majors recently acquired from Russia, was second star and Campagna third star.

- Kale Kerbashian of the Sting had his consecutive games points streak end at 12.

- Sarnia is now below the .500 mark at home with a 12-13-1-2 record.

- St. Michael’s has an incredible 28-0-0-0 record when leading after two periods. Sarnia is 2-20-1-2 when trailing after 40 minutes




 

 

 

 

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