Turnover's Cost Sting two points
DAVE BORODY   November 6th, 2010

“Turnovers cost us the game.”

Those were the words of Sarnia Sting head coach Dave MacQueen after watching his team drop a 7-5 decision to the Saginaw Spirit, Friday night before 2,644 fans at the RBC Centre.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Sting as they fell back under the .500 mark at 7-8-2-0. Saginaw won their sixth in a row and owns the best record in the Ontario Hockey League at 13-2-1-1.

The game was a see-saw battle from start to finish. The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period and 3-3 after the second. Saginaw’s seventh goal came into an open net.

But MacQueen pointed to five of the goals scored by Saginaw coming as a direct result of a Sting turnover.

“We played well enough to win, but our back end needs to be better,” said MacQueen. “On our recent winning streak we had success by doing the simple things. Our defence were making good first passes and supporting the attack. Tonight they were too high risk.”

He added, “Anytime you score five goals on you home ice you should win. But you can’t keep making mistakes like we made tonight. You have to keep the game simple. Our defence needs to play within their limitations. We forechecked well and gave the third-ranked team in the country all they could handle.”

MacQueen felt there were a number of positives his team can take from the loss.
“Our power play scored us a couple of goals again tonight while are penalty-killing was perfect. Offensively we were fine. Our offence production is one of the highest in the league right now. But defensively we need everyone helping out. It’s a group effort.”

Michael Kantor scored three goals for the Spirit, including the winning goal at 16:33 of the third period that put his team ahead 6-4 at the time. Josh Shalla added two goals while Ivan Telegin and Vincent Trocheck counted singles.

Nail Yakupov and Brandon Francisco led the Sting attack with two goals each while Kale Kerbashian had one. Yakupov now has 15 goals on the season, tops on the club. Tyler Peters and Alex Galchenyuk chipped in with two assists each.

For Francisco, he now has seven goals on the season, four of them coming in the last two games.
“I’m just trying to make the simple plays,” said Francisco, now into his second season with the Sting. “I’m getting to the net more. I’ve also had some lucky bounces and hopefully that continues.”

As for the game, Francisco said, “we played well enough to win, but we got caught holding onto the puck too long and we coughed it up. It resulted in some costly goals against.”

He added, “Saginaw is a well-positioned team. They have three solid lines that come at you hard. They play a high tempo game.”

Tadeas Galansky was the winning goalie making 29 saves. Rookie Brandon Hope took the loss in goal for the Sting stopping 31 shots. Hope made a number of solid saves including stopping two breakaways.
Sarnia finished two-for-six on the power play while Saginaw was zero-for-two. But the Spirit scored a shorthanded goal, the seventh shorthanded goal the Sting has allowed as a team this season.

MacQueen says he has faith in his defensive corps, but says they can’t keep turning the puck over.
``If they don’t we can take ice time away. We did that in the third period tonight. During our five-game losing streak it was the forwards turning the puck over in the neutral zone. Tonight it was the defence. We will show them video and keep working with them.``

He added, ``Sometimes players think they are capable of doing more than they can do. They just need to keep it simple.``

The Sting resume action tonight when they host the Ottawa 67s for there one and only visit of the season. Game time is 7:05 p.m. After tonight’s game Sarnia embarks on a three-game road trip and do not play at home again until Nov. 19th.

STING NOTES
- Kantor was first star with Yakupov second star and Shalla third star.
- Sting captain Nathan Chiarlitti was back in the lineup after missing three games due to a concussion. Scratches from the Sting lineup included Kyle Flemington, serving the final game of a five-game suspension, along with Ryan Zupancic and Dan Pawlaczyk (numbers).
- Sarnia fell to 5-4-0-0 on home ice while Saginaw is 7-2-1-1 on the road.
- The Sting is 0-2 against Saginaw this year. The teams play four more times.