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Sting earn decisive win over Colts
sarniasports.com February 19th, 2011


Brett Ritchie made an auspicious return to the Sarnia Sting lineup Friday night.

The hard-nosed right-winger scored a goal, assisted on two others, and brought the crowd to its feet with a decisive win in a fight in leading the Sting to a 4-1 win over the Barrie Colts in front of 3,423 fans at the RBC Centre.

Ritchie missed the last 11 games due to mono and was itching to get back into the lineup. But unfortunately Ritchie injured his shoulder in the third period and is a question mark for Sarnia’s next game in Saginaw Saturday night.

“Let’s hope there were some (NHL) scouts in the building tonight,” said Sting head coach Trevor Letowski, when asked about Ritchie’s return to the lineup.

“When he plays like that, he’s not only effective, but he will get drafted. Brett is still a little banged up, but he wanted to play and was pretty impressive. He was a difference-maker out there and gave our team a big lift.”

Ritchie, who scored his 20th goal of the season late in the third period, said it was great to get back into the lineup.

“I’ve been wanting to play for a couple of weeks now, but I just got cleared to play this week. It was nice to get the win and I also had a little luck around the net. It was tough going home. Having mono is no fun because you feel fine one day, but you aren’t allowed to do anything.”

Ritchie, not known much as a fighter, took on Alex Lepkowski of the Colts. Lepkowski left the ice in a trail of blood after being cut in the face and did not return to the game.

“There was a scrum in front of their net. The guy suckered me in the face and got me mad. You can only put up with so much before you have to do something about it,” said Ritchie.

The Sting snapped a two-game losing streak with the much-needed victory.

“We came out well and got a goal in the first minute,” said Letowski. “We were all over them for awhile, but we ran into penalty trouble. That took our momentum away and let them back in the game. We could have easily put them away early, but we gave them life and it made things interesting the rest of the way.”

Letowski admitted getting a lead instead of being behind was crucial.

“It’s very important for a team like ours to get a lead. You could just see the difference in the way we play. But upon saying that, we still gave them too many chances and Troy Passingham had to make some outstanding saves. Our penalty-killing was great and that was key.”

Passingham turned aside 40 of 41 shots he faced and was named the game’s first star. He stopped a breakaway and then a penalty shot only minutes apart midway through the third period when the score was 3-1 and the game was still in doubt.

The line of Ritchie, Alex Galchenyuk and Kale Kerbashian did all the offensive damage for the Sting. Kerbashian had two goals and two assists while the other two each had a goal and two assists. 

Kerbashian gave the Sting a 1-0 lead just 33 seconds into the game when he skated into the slot and wristed a shot into the top corner of the net.

Barrie scored their only goal at 18:49 of the period when Petr Beranek snapped a wrist shot past Passingham from close range.

Galchenyuk scored what proved to be the winning goal 52 seconds into period two when he cut in front and whipped a wrist drive over the goalie’s shoulder. It was his 19th tally of the year.

Kerbashian put the Sting up 3-1 23 seconds into period three on a power play. It was his 30th goal of the year, a career high.

Midway through the period Passingham stopped Colin Behenna on a breakaway and then thwarted Eric Locke, (a former teammate of his in Windsor) on a penalty shot. Locke, who was pulled down on a breakaway, tried to go five-hole, but Passingham closed the door.

Ritchie closed out the scoring at 18:57 finishing off a nice cross-ice pass from Kerbashian.

Clint Windsor was in goal for Barrie and made 32 stops.

Sarnia played without top scorer Nail Yakupov, out with a concussion, but got some energy from diminutive Jesse Stoughton, who was back after playing tier two junior in Trenton.

“Jesse provided exactly what I wanted and that was energy,” said Letowski. “He showed me he was ready to play. He can be a leader and show our guy guys what it takes to win.”

Stoughton is happy to be back in Sarnia.

“It feels great to be back. I just go out and try and play with energy and get some energy back in this building.”

Next up for the Sting is Saturday night when they travel to Saginaw to meet the Spirit.

“We have to put this game aside and be ready for Saginaw,” said Letowski. “We need a better effort on the road. We failed last weekend in Kitchener and Windsor. We just need to play harder and see what happens.”

The Sting return home Monday for a Family Day afternoon game as they host the Sudbury Wolves beginning at 2 p.m.

STING NOTES

-    Passingham was first star with Ritchie second star and Kerbashian third star.

-    One of the assistant coaches for Barrie is ex-Sting Todd Miller. He was a second round draft pick of the team and played for two seasons beginning in 1995-96. After his junior career he played in Germany before returning home to Canada. The 32-year-old operates hockey schools in Barrie in the summer and is in his first season coaching in the OHL under Dale Hawerchuk. He is married and the couple are expecting their first child this year.

-    Sarnia’s overall record in the Ontario Hockey League improved to 20-28-4-2 and they are now 2-2 since Letowski took over as interim head coach.

-    Barrie was zero-for-six in the power play and Sarnia one-for-five.

-    The Colts are 2-25-1-1 on the road this season.

 

 

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