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Sting win second in a row with victory over Spirit
dave borody march 11th, 2011


SAGINAW, Mich. – Road victories have been few and far between for the Sarnia Sting this season.

Going into Friday night’s game with the Saginaw Spirit the Sting had only seven road wins in 30 games.

Make that eight wins away from home for Sarnia after a gutsy 4-2 win over the Spirit in front of a sellout crowd of 5,527 loud fans at the Dow Event Centre.

The win was second in as many nights for the Sting as they improved to 24-34-4-2 in the Ontario Hockey League.

Sarnia never trailed in this game as they led 1-0 after the first period and 3-1 after the second.

Interim head coach of the Sting, Trevor Letowski said it was a great team effort by his team.

“This is a great experience for us to come into this building to face a team fighting for a Conference title and come away with a victory. They have been struggling a bit, but their coaching staff had them ready. I would say that has to be our biggest road win of the year. It’s a credit to the players who are only playing for pride at this stage.”

He added, “We played exactly the same way we did in Sarnia on Thursday night. We were skating and kept the shifts short. Because of that we had good team speed and we also got pucks deep. It’s nice to see what we did in practice all week pay off.”

He added, “It’s fun for the coaching staff when we see efforts like that. The message is keep working and keep plugging away. Hockey is a funny game. The momentum can change either way very quickly.”

The only goal of the opening period came at 19:23 on the power play when Alex Galchenyuk banged home a loose puck in the crease for his 26th goal of the season. Nail Yakupov and Tyler Peters picked up assists.

The assist ties Yakupov for the team rookie record with points in a season with Steven Stamkos. Yakupov has 47 goals and 45 assists for 92 points.

The Sting jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a pair of goals midway through period two.

Kale Kerbashian put the Sting ahead 2-0 at 10:10 with his 34th goal of the season on a breakaway. He took a long pass from Galchenyuk, skated in and made no mistake picking the top corner on the glove side.

Sarnia’s third goal came at 14:41, a rare shorthanded marker. Garrett Hooey had a wide open net to score his sixth of the year after Spirit goalie Mavric Parks got caught wandering out of his crease.

Saginaw finally solved Sting netminder Brandon Hope at 16:52 when Vincent Trocheck scored with a wrist shot on the short side on a two-on-one break. A minute earlier Hope stopped Brandon Saad on a breakaway.

The Spirit pulled to within a goal at 10:46 of period three when Ivan Telegin deflected home a point shot.

Saginaw came hard at the Sting over the final nine minutes, but Hope held the fort. Sarnia played a man short for the final minute and 14 seconds, but did not allow a shot on Hope.

Kerbashian iced the game with 2.2 seconds remaining scoring into an open net.

Hope was solid in the Sarnia net as the Spirit outshot Sarnia 42-31.

“Hope was due for a big effort,” said Letowski. “Not that he’s been bad lately, but has no wins and was giving up lots of goals. This performance tells you what type of kid he is. Saginaw came at us tough in the third period. Sting fans have a lot to look forward to with Brandon over the next couple of years.”

Sarnia finished one-for-five on the power play while Saginaw was zero-for-three.

The Sting concludes the weekend on Sunday when they travel to Windsor to take on the Spitfires. Game time is 2 p.m.

Sarnia’s final home game of the season is Thursday when they host the Erie Otters at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

Sarnia will finish off their season with games at London on Friday and Sault Ste. Marie Saturday.

STING NOTES

- Galchenyuk had a goal and an assist and was first star. Hope was second star and Telegin third star. Galchenyuk is now second in rookie scoring in the league behind Yakupov with 26 goals and 48 assists for 74 points.

- Hottot finished with two assists giving him four points in two games.

- Sarnia won two of six games against the Spirit this season.

- Forward Dean Pawlaczyk was back in the Sting lineup after missing six games with a suspension. But forward J.C. Campagna did not make the trip due to an undisclosed injury. Jesse Stoughton and Anthony Donati remain sidelined with injuries.

- After allowing 28 goals in three games last weekend, Sarnia has allowed just four goals in two games so far this weekend.

 

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