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 The
Sarnia Sting snatched defeat from the jaws of
victory Thursday night.
The Kitchener scored two goals in the final minute
of the third period to erase a 2-1 deficit and edge
the Sting 3-2 in front of 2,302 fans at the RBC
Centre.
Sarnia trailed 1-0 going into the third period but
scored two goals in the opening five minutes of
period three to take a 2-1 lead. The Sting held that
lead until the Rangers tied the game with 59.3
seconds left in regulation time with their goalie on
the bench for an extra attacker.
Kitchener then won the game with 21.7 seconds left
on the clock.
“It’s disappointing the way it ended because we
played a solid game against a very solid hockey
team,” said Sting head coach Dave MacQueen. “I still
don’t know how the third one went in. Obviously
we’ve got to be better, but for 58 minutes we played
with them.”
MacQueen added, “we squandered too many glorious
scoring opportunities in the first and second
periods. That’s what happens when you let a team
hang around, especially an explosive team like that.
“Even a point would have been nice. When they made
it 2-2, you want to play for overtime and take your
chances from there. It’s frustrating because we
played well enough to win and didn’t get rewarded.”
The Sting held the Rangers to 29 shots, just 18
after two periods and just one in the opening 10
minutes of period three.
“The message was to be more committed in our own end
and we did that. Generally we won most one of the
battles in our end. We blocked a lot of shots until
the last minute,” said MacQueen.
Kitchener scored the only goal of period one at the
17-minute mark when Michael Catenacci banked a shot
off a Sting defender and past goalie Brandon Hope.
The second period was scoreless with Hope and
Kitchener’s Mike Morrison making a number of solid
saves.
The Sting tied the game just 19 seconds into period
three when Brett Ritchie’s sharp-angle wrist shot
beat Morrison. For Ritchie it was his 14th goal of
the season and fourth since coming back from the
Christmas break. He also has seven goals in his past
seven games.
“I’m just trying to use my size more to get scoring
opportunities. I’m also shooting the puck more and
lately they have been going in. Hopefully I can keep
it up.”
Ritchie now has 14 goals in 35 games this year after
scoring 13 in 65 games in his rookie season a year
ago.
Sarnia took their first lead at 4:49 when Alex
Galchenyuk took a centering pass from Nail Yakupov
and lifted a backhand over the goalie from close
range. It was his 12th marker of the year.
After that the Sting did a good job of defending and
not allowing a lot of Rangers scoring opportunities.
They even killed off Kitchener’s sixth power of the
game with just under three minutes to go.
But with 59.3 seconds left, Matthew Tipoff tied the
game for the Rangers when he knocked in a loose
puck. Tobias Rieder got the game-winner with 21.7
seconds as he came from the side of the goal and
somehow jammed the puck past Hope.
 “This
is kind of like the world junior game last night,”
said Ritchie. “We played well for two and a half
periods. We got rewarded early in the third with a
couple of goals, but some missed assignments in our
own end late in the game killed us.”
Hope made 26 saves in goal and even gained an assist
on Sarnia’s first goal. Hope may see a lot of action
in the short-term as veteran goalie John Cullen is
nursing a knee injury. Draft pick Sean Parker was
the backup, up from the Lambton
Shores junior B team.
Morrison made 28 saves for the Rangers.
Sarnia was zero-for-five on the power play and
Kitchener zero-for-six.
The loss was the third in a row for Sarnia and
leaves them with a 15-18-3-1 record in the Ontario
Hockey League.
Sarnia is right back in action Friday night when
they host the Windsor Spitfires at 7:05 p.m. at the
RBC Centre.
“We can’t sit around and fee sorry four ourselves.
We have to get right back in the saddle and try and
win a hockey game,” said MacQueen.
STING NOTES
- Rider was first star with Galchenyuk second star
and Morrison third star.
- The Sting honoured Garrett Hooey, along with
Kitchener’s Matia Marcantuoni, who played together
at the World Under-17 Tournament in Winnipeg
capturing a gold medal earlier this week for Team
Ontario.
- “It’s one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had
and will cherish it for the rest of my life,” said
Hooey. “Everyone accepted their roles and the team
came together very quickly.”
He added, “when you look at the Canada crest on the
front of your jersey, you get a special feeling.”
- Out of the Sting lineup were Cullen, Brandon
Francisco and Craig Hottot, all with injuries. They
went with 10 forwards and eight defencemen.
- The roster currently sits at 22 as 19-year-old
defencemen Ron Soucie was re-assigned to Leamington
Flyers junior B team. Soucie came to the Sting a
couple of years ago in a trade with Windsor.
“With the acquisition of Jack Kuzmyk we felt that we
needed to give some of our younger defencemen a
chance to play and develop. Having four 1991 born
players on our back end it was a numbers game and we
needed to make room for the younger guys to play.”
- Sting draft pick Braden Kavaratzis has been traded
by the Sarnia Legionnaires to the Wellington Dukes
Tier Two junior A team.
- Sarnia is now 0-3 against Kitchener this season.
They have one more game remaining.
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