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GUELPH – The Sarnia Sting’s fleeting playoff hopes
took another hit Friday night.
The Sting dropped a 6-2 decision to the Guelph Storm
in front of 4, 882 fans at the Sleeman Centre.
The victory moved the eighth place Storm seven
points ahead of the Sting in the battle for the
final playoff spot in the Western Conference of the
Ontario Hockey League. Each team has 22 games
remaining. Sarnia has now lost six of their last
seven games.
The Sting has also had no luck at all against the
Storm recently. Over the past five years, Guelph
holds an 8-3-0-0 record against Sarnia and is
5-1-0-0 at the Sleeman Centre, including 2-0 this
season.
The Sting dug themselves another big hole as they
trailed 3-1 after the first period and 4-1 after 40
minutes. They could get no closer than two goals in
the third period.
"It's frustrating," said Sting head coach Dave
MacQueen. "The players are frustrated and so is the
coaching staff. We had energy in the first perod and
had just as many quality scoring chances as they
did. But at the end of the period it's 3-1 for them.
"Even when they got up 4-1, we kept playing hard. We
made it 4-2 early in the third and had them back on
their heels. Then we took three straight penalties.
It took all the momentum away."
He added, "those penalties screwed up the lines and
took the flow of the game away. Then we tried to
create things that just weren't there."
Guelph got off to a quick start scoring a pair of
goals 50 seconds apart. Francis Menard got the first
at 6:23 banging home a loose puck while Michael
Latta made it 2-0 at 7:13 when he snapped home a
high wrist shot from the slot.
Sarnia got on the board at 13:32 when Nick Latta
backhanded home a rebound for his eighth goal of the
season. But it was Latta’s first goal in 10 games
and his first in 2011.
But Guelph restored their two-goal lead at 17:02 on
their first power play chance when Taylor Beck sent
home a screened
shot.
After Brandon Francisco of the Sting rang a shot off
the crossbar early in period two, Guelph scored the
only goal of the second frame at 2:24 when Beck
scored his second of the night converting a
cross-ice pass.
Sarnia cut the lead to 4-2 three minutes into period
three when Alex Galchenyuk took a pass from Nail
Yakupov and whipped home a high wrist shot from a
sharp angle. For Galchenyuk, it was his 16th goal of
the season and first in five games.
But the Sting shot themselves in the foot taking
three consecutive penalties and the third one came
back to haunt them.
Guelph made it 5-2 at 13:43 on the power play when
Richard Panik scored. Peter Holland scored into an
empty net for the Guelph with a minute remaining to
complete the scoring.
For the second straight game, the Sting allowed 44
shots on goal. Garret Sparks was the winning goalie
making 30 saves. Troy Passingham took the loss.
Sarnia finished zero-for-four on the power play
while Guelph was two-for-four.
The Sting completes the weekend Sunday afternoon
when they travel to Mississauga to take on the St.
Michael’s Majors. The Majors lead the Eastern
Conference and will host the Memorial Cup in May.
Guelph meanwhile plays at Sudbury Saturday night and
in Sault Ste. Marie Sunday night.
Sarnia has a pair of home games next week as they
host the Plymouth Whalers on Thursday and
Mississauga Friday night. Both games begin at 7:05
p.m. at the RBC Centre.
STING NOTES
- Sarnia played with 19 players, one under the
limit. Brett Ritchie (mono) and Anthony Donati
(knee) did not play.
- Sarnia is 0-3 against the Storm this season with
one game left in March at the RBC Centre.
- Kale Kerbashian had one assist and now has at
least one assist in 11 consecutive games.
- The Sting is now 2-18-1-2 when trailing after two
periods.
- Nail Yakupov’s 35 goals puts him seven shy of the
team rookie record of 42 held by Steven Stamkos.
- Sarnia’s road record this season dipped to
6-11-3-0.
- There was one fight in the third period where
Sarnia’s Craig Hottot destroyed Guelph’s Connor
Tresham.
- All three stars were from Guelph, Beck, Panik and
Michael Latta in that order.
- Sarnia’s overall record falls to 18-22-4-2 this
season.
- The Sting has been outscored 12-4 in their last
two games.
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