Sarnia, ON
- After dropping their opening preseason game to the
London Knights on Friday in London 6-3, the Sarnia
Sting returned home Saturday night for game two of
the home and home. In front of the hometown crowd
the Sting scored quickly and often, as Sarnia put up
13 goals in a 13-2 victory over the Knights.
But with
it only being a preseason game, a large margin
victory may not be what the Sting need right now, as
players still fight for positions on the roster, and
look to be evaluated by the coaching staff.
"It was
hard to evaluate the kids with a lot of people run
around out there," said Head Coach
Jacques
Beaulieu. "We just wanted to protect ourselves and
try and play the game the proper way."
One
evaluation that can be made from Sarnia's victory is
the amount of goal scoring depth and players that
have the ability to put the puck in the net. In
total nine different players scored for Sarnia.
Brett
Ritchie opened the game with two goals, his first
1:29 into the period as he was fed a pass into the
slot and fired it by London goalie Conner McKinnon.
Just over two minutes later he would add his second
goal with a snap shot. Craig Hottot would make it
3-0 Sarnia when he tossed a puck on net that got
through McKinnon.
"We wanted
to get a good start, there is no doubt," said
Beaulieu. "I thought we still played ok yesterday.
We didn't get rewarded because we ran into some
pretty good goaltending, but we wanted to get a good
jump."
Nail
Yakupov would make it 4-0 after Reid Boucher flipped
a pass to Yakupov for a breakaway. Nick Latta would
end the period with a goal in front of the net,
giving Sarnia five in the period. Sarnia outshot the
Knights 18-4 in the first.
In the
second that jump of Sarnia continued, as 55 seconds
into the second on the powerplay, Anthony DeAngelo
spotted Nathan Chiarlitti who deked his defender and
put the wrist past McKinnon for a 6-0 Sarnia lead.
Domenic Alberga would bang home the Sting's seventh
goal, which would end the night for McKinnon.
His
replacement, Chris McDougall didn't fair any better,
as his first shot faced would find the back of the
net as Taylor Carnevale scored his first of the game
for an 8-0 lead. London would finally break the
shutout by Brandon Hope as Greg Milner made it 8-1.
But Yakupov would team up with Boucher again, only
this time, Boucher would score to put Sarnia up 9-1.
Carnevale would add one more on a one timer to end
the period, as the Sting again outshot the Knights
24-5.
Carnevale
would complete his hat-trick in the third on another
slap shot. Sarnia would score twice more, with Jack
Kuzmyk and Julian Luciani picking up goals. London
would get one more, but Sarnia would still go on to
the 13-2 victory.
Sarnia
played most of the third period without the likes of
Yakupov and Ritchie who were given game misconducts,
Reid Boucher who was sat on the bench for
protection, and Alex Galchenyuk who left the game in
the first after a body check in the corner, but is
being reported as fine.
Sarnia
ended up outshooting London 63-15, carrying over
from Friday night were they outshot the Knights
45-32.
Sarnia's
next preseason game is on Friday at home to the
Saginaw Spirit. With a 1-1 record, the evaluation of
talent will continue into the week as the Sting look
to continue to get stronger as a team.
"We got to
keep working on our systems. We haven't spent much
time together," said Beaulieu. "We got three weeks
to get ready for our home opener. We are going to
make sure we manage our time wisely on the ice.
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