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A valiant comeback try by the Sarnia Sting was
wasted Friday night.
The Erie Otters scored the winning goal with just
over five minutes remaining and went on to defeat
the Sting 6-4 in front of 3,490 fans at the RBC
Centre.
The loss was Sarnia's fourth straight in the Ontario
Hockey League.
The Sting battled back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-2
with a pair of early third period goals to tie the
game at 4-4 before the Otters responded. Erie scored
their sixth goal into an empty net with a second
remaining.
"It's tough when you dig yourself a 3-0 hole and
expect to come back," said Sting head coach Dave
MacQueen. "But after saying that we showed some
pride and character and did come back in the third
period. We then gave up a soft goal. "I hate to beat
it to death but we needed a save. Their guy made two
or three real good stops when the score was 4-4. It
also goes back to playing to win. We just can't seem
to get over that hump and we let games slip away in
the last few minutes of games."
He added, "The sad part is we have some great
chances to take the lead and they come back down the
ice, it's a broken play and the puck winds up in the
back of our net. We can't keep shooting ourselves in
the foot like that. It just takes the wind out of
your sails."
The Sting also got some terrible news earlier in the
day when it was revealed right-winger Brett Ritchie
has mono and
could be out four to six weeks. The second year
forward and Sarnia's first round draft pick last
year has been one of the Sting's most reliable
players over the last month. He has a 12 game points
streak going where he scored 12 goals and seven
assists. He has 19 goals on the season.
"That hurts," said MacQueen, when asked about
Ritchie. "He's been our most consistent performer
over the last month. We played a team tonight that
had 13 last year players and we had only four.
"I told the players they can't feel sorry for
themselves now that Brett is gone. We need our
veteran players to be leaders and there's going to
be more ice time for our young players in his
absence. We had two or three veterans respond
tonight and two or three who didn't."
Ritchie has gone home to Orangeville to recover. He
plans on staying there until he is symptom-free.
Shawn Szydlowski led the Otters with three goals and
one assist. Mac McDonnell, Anthony Luciani and Mike
Cazzola added
single goals. Nail Yakupov had one of his best games
of the season for the Sting. He recorded his first
career OHL hat trick and added an assist. He now has
33 goals on the season. Brandon Alderson had the
other Sting goal, his 11th of the season.
Yakupov also brought the crowd to their feet early
in the third period when he crunched Erie's Brett
Cook into the end
boards shattering the glass. Returning to the Sting
lineup after missing seven games was forward Brandon
Francisco. He picked up one assist.
"I felt pretty good actually," said Francisco." I
was a little tired early trying to get my legs, but
I felt good in the third period and tried to get
pucks to the net."
As for the game, Francisco said, "We started slow,
but battled back and kept with it. Unfortunately we
weren't able to come all the way back. We can't keep
bouncing back and forth like that."
Erie scored on their first shot 39 seconds into the
game on a two-on-one and led 2-0 after one period.
They extended their lead to 3-0 two minutes into
period two before the Sting responded with a pair of
goals to cut the lead to one. However, Erie regained
their two-goal lead just 48 seconds after the second
Sting goal. But Sarnia charged out of the gate in
the third period and a pair of Yakupov goals tied
the game by the six-minute mark. The Sting had a
pair of two-on-one breaks over the next few minutes,
but was able to finish.
Luciani scored what proved to be the winning goal at
14:44 when he knocked in a loose puck after a shot
from the slot.
Ramis Sadikov was the winning goalie making 28 saves
while Troy Passingham stopped 34 for the Sting.
Sarnia resumes action Sunday when they host the
Peterborough Petes beginning at 2 p.m. at the RBC
Centre. All kids 12
and under will be admitted for only $5.
STING NOTES
- Yakupov was first star with Szydlowski
second star and Luciani third star.
- Each team was zero-for-two on the power
play.
- Defenceman Josh Chapman was up from the
Sarnia Legionnaires junior B team. Anthony Donati is
out indefinitely with a knee injury.
- Ex-Sting defenceman Brent Sullivan has
signed with the Legionnaires for the remainder of
the season.
- Sarnia's overall record is now 17-20-4-2.
Their home record is 11-10-2. Sarnia is now five
points back of Guelph for the final playoff spot in
the Western Conference as Geulph defeated Kingston
8-6 Friday night.
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