KITCHENER
– The Kitchener Rangers showed no mercy on the
Sarnia Sting Friday night.
The Rangers scored four times in the opening period
and coasted to a 7-1 victory over the Sting, before
6,388 fans at the Kitchener Auditorium.
Kitchener dominated the Sting this season winning
all four games and outscoring Sarnia 22-5 over those
four games.
The loss came on the heels of the Sting defeating
London 4-3 in overtime on Thursday night in Trevor
Letowski’s debut as interim head coach of the team.
Sarnia has now lost seven of their last eight while
they have just two wins in their last 13 games.
The Rangers dominated the game from start to finish
as they led 4-0 after one period and 6-0 after 40
minutes. They scored on their first shot at 3:28 and
had their second goal 53 seconds later.
“I thought we were ready to play,” said Letowski.
“But they scored on their chances early. They are a
completeteam and once they got the lead it was
tough. I think they scored six goals on 18 shots.
Things could have got real ugly, but we held our own
in the third period.”
He added, “they took it to us pretty good while we
didn’t have much sustained offensive pressure. We
had a couple of quality chances, that if we had
scored, might have made a difference. We just have
to scratch this one off the list and move forward,”
Defenceman Jack Kuzmyk scored the lone Sting goal at
13:01 of the third period on a shot from the point
to spoil Mike
Morrison’s shutout bid. It was Kuzmyk’s first goal
of the season.
Sting rookie sensation and top scorer Nail Yakupov
was again held off the scoresheet for the second
straight night
marking the first time he has been held pointless in
back-to-back games this season. Kale Kerbashian did
not played the third period due to a sinus
infection.
“He had nothing left in the tank,” said Letowski.
“He probably shouldn’t have played at all tonight
and even last night.”
Troy Passingham started in goal for the Sting and
allowed six goals on 18 shots. Brandon Hope came on
three minutes into the second period and was the
lone bright spot in the Sting lineup making several
brilliant saves. It took 28 shots before Kitchener
scored on Hope. He faced a total of 29 in the game.
Morrison made 21 stops.
Jason Akeson led the Rangers with two goals and
three assists. Akeson had a goal and five assists in
a game earlier in the year against Sarnia. Tobias
Rider also had two goals and Tyler Randell, Ryan
Murphy and Jerry D’Amigo with singles.
D’Amigo joined the Rangers recently from the Toronto
Marlies of the American Hockey League. He is a draft
pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Kitchener was two-for-five on the power play and
Sarnia zero-for-three.
Sarnia returns to action Sunday afternoon when they
travel to Windsor to take on the Spitfires beginning
at 2 p.m. The next home game for the Sting is Friday
when they host the Barrie Colts and 7:05 p.m. at the
RBC Centre.
STING NOTES
- Sarnia had a full lineup of 20 players with only
forward Brett Ritchie (mono) and defenceman Anthony
Donati (knee)
missing. Both are expected to be ready to play next
Friday. Forward Craig Hot tot was back after a
two-game suspension.
Defenseman Josh Chapman was up from the Sarnia
Legionnaires junior B team. He was involved in a
fight in the final
minute
- Sarnia’s road record dropped to 6-14-3-0 while
their overall record is now 19-27-4-2.
- The Rangers, who have one of the best home records
in the league at 21-4-2-1, are an incredible
15-0-1-0 when leading after one period and 20-0-0-0
when ahead after two periods.
- Overager Tyler Peters of the Sting has not scored
in 13 games and has just two goals in his last 18
games. Brandon Alderson has not scored in nine
straight games.
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