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PLYMOUTH, Mich. – What was supposed to be a
promising weekend ended on a sour note for the Sting
Sting Saturday night.
The Sting dropped a 8-2 decision to the Plymouth
Whalers before 2,827 fans at the Compuware Arena.
Sarnia finished the weekend with only two of a
possible six points to fall further back in their
bid for a playoff spot in the Western Conference of
the Ontario Hockey League.
Sarnia’s overall record fell to 17-19-4-2 as they
remain in ninth place. The Sting has lost three in a
row.
After a solid first period where the Sting played
Plymouth even at 2-2, Sarnia fell apart after that.
They had all kinds of problems clearing the puck out
of their own end.
“We just got outworked,” said Sting captain Nathan
Chiarlitti. “Every battle we lost. The shots on goal
don’t tell the story. They were the better team
tonight. There’s not much else you can say in a 8-2
loss.”
The opening period was very similar to Friday’s game
as goals came fast and furious. The two teams split
four goals. Rickard Randall gave the Whalers a 1-0
lead at 3:48, but Brett Ritchie tied for the Sting
at 5:27. Just 14 seconds later
Plymouth regained the lead on a goal by Max Iafrate,
but Ritchie squared matters at 12:54 with a
shorthanded tally when he tipped home a goalmouth
pass from Kale Kerbashian.
Ritchie’s two goals extended his consecutive game
points streak to 12 games. Over that period Ritchie
has 12 goals and seven assists for 19 points. He now
has 19 goals on the season.
“To see those two goals go in early was nice, but
when you don’t get the two points it really doesn’t
matter much,” said Ritchie. “We came out hard in the
first period as we knew they would in their own
building. “But in the second period our defensive
zone coverage wasn’t very good and we seemed to be
standing around. You can’t give up that momentum
like we did in the second period.”
As for only two points out of six on the weekend,
Ritchie said, “We easily could have had a couple of
more in those two games with London and Plymouth.
But we need to tighten up our play in our end and we
will be all right.”
The Whalers put the game away with a dominating
second period. They outshot the Sting 18-9 and were
rewarded with three
goals.
Rakell got his second of the night at 4:43 knocking
in his own rebound. He completed his hat trick at
13:24 when he intercepted a Sting clearing pass and
picked the top corner on the glove side.
Plymouth’s third goal of the period came at 16:18
while shorthanded when Tyler Brown scored on a
breakaway.
The Whalers scored three more times in the third
period by James Livingston, Alex Aleardi and Jamie
Devane. Sarnia went zero-for-seven on the power play
while Plymouth was two-for-four.
Scott Wedgewood was the winning goalie while rookie
Brandon Hope had a shaky performance in goal for the
Sting. Plymouth finished with a 40-39 edge in shots
on goal.
The Sting will play just two games next week, both
at home. The Erie Otters make their first appearance
of the season at the RBC Centre on Friday at 7:05
p.m. while the Sting host the Peterborough Petes for
their only appearance of the year
in Sarnia on Sunday starting at 2 p.m.
STING NOTES
- Brandon Francisco was the only player out of
the Sting lineup as he recovers from an upper body
injury. Francisco is back skating with the team.
- Nail Yakupov continues to lead all OHL
rookies in scoring with 30 goals and 31 assists for
61 points. But he was held off the scoresheet last
night for the first time in 12 games. Over the past
11 games Yakupov had scored 10 goals and seven
assists Alex Galchenyuk is tied for third in rookie
scoring with 15 goals and 30 assists for 45 points.
- Sarnia and Plymouth have now played four
times against one another this season. They have
both won a pair. They have two more meetings.
- Sarnia’s road record is now 6-10-3-0.
- -About the only thing the Sting did win last
night was a third period fight where Craig Hottot
destroyed Plymouth’s Nick Malysa. In another third
period fight it appeared Plymouth’s Max Iafrate
tried to kick Daniel Broussard. Iafrate was given a
match penalty for slew-footing.
- The Sting had a practice scheduled for
Tuesday in Forest, but it has been cancelled due to
scheduling conflicts at the
Lambton Shores Arena and Thedford Arena.
- Ex-Sting star Jon Sim has cleared waivers
with the New York Islanders of the National Hockey
League, but will not report to the minors. Sim plans
on finishing this season playing in Switzerland.
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