The Sault Ste.
Marie Greyhounds shutout the Sarnia Sting 2-0 in Ontario
Hockey League play, Saturday night before 3,184 fans at
the RBC Centre.
The loss was
Sarnia’s fifth in a row, their longest longest streak
this year. They were shutout for the third time this
season, the first time on home ice.
“It’s
frustrating, no doubt about that,” said Sting captain
Jordan Hill. “The mood in the room right now is not like
it was when we won six games in a row. We just have to
find a way to get out of this streak. It’s all about
working hard.”
Hill felt the
Sting didn’t play that badly against the Greyhounds.
“It was one of
our better games of late. We worked hard, but obviously
that wasn’t good enough. We need to come back and have a
good week of practice and be ready for our next game.”
The game was
close from start to finish.
Despite
outshooting Sault Ste. Marie 10-5 in period one, Sarnia
found themselves trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes.
Brett Thompson
provided the Greyhounds with a 1-0 lead at 15:14 on the
power play when he knocked in a rebound off a point
drive. It was Thompson’s team-high 14th goal
of the year.
Sarnia’s best
chance of the period came when Brandon Francisco ripped
a shot off the crossbar.
The Sting had
two golden opportunities in the second period. Jesse
Stoughton was alone in the slot. His shot was partially
stopped by Greyhounds goalie Robin Lehner and then the
puck went off the goalpost.
Late in the
period Kale Kerbashian of the Sting split the Greyhounds
defence and was in alone. But Lehner stopped his initial
shot and the Greyhounds netminder also stopped the
rebound by Kerbashian.
Early in the
third period Brett Ritchie had a great chance for
Sarnia, but fanned on his shot in the slot.
The Greyhounds
had a three-on-one break going the other way and made it
count when Daniel Catenacci, the first overall pick in
last year’s draft, finished off a goalmouth pass from
Thompson 5:56.
“You aren’t
going to win many games when you don’t score,” said
Sting head coach Dave MacQueen. “Defensively we were
very good and didn’t give them much.
“Right now we
are caught between a rock and a hard place. We were
being aggressive with our defencemen pinching. As a
result we were giving up six or seven goals a game. So
we decided to back off a little on our forecheck. We’ve
been better defensively, but not generating any offence.
We need to find that happy medium.”
Sarnia was
zero-for-six with the man advantage.
“When our power
play was operating around 30 per cent, we were winning
games. Right now our power play is non-existant,” said
MacQueen. “We have our first unit and then we’ve tried
just about everybody on the second unit. But nothing is
happening.”
MacQueen added,
“we worked hard and competed. We had some chances, but
they capitalized on their chances and we didn’t. Take
their second goal. We had a four-on-two break and
Ritchie gets the puck in the slot and fans on the shot.
They come back three-on-one and the puck is in the back
of the net. That’s the way things have been going of
late.”
MacQueen says
his young players can’t carry the load.
“I thought
Brandon Francisco had his best two games of the season
this weekend. J.C. Campagna worked hard tonight. But
these guys can’t carry the team. We need the older guys
who are playing 20-22 minutes a game to create some
offence. You can’t expect 16-year-olds to do that.”
MacQueen knows
his young team is going to have their peaks and valleys.
“Right now it’s
a young team who are a little down on themselves. You
can see some of the guys are a little discouraged and
gripping their sticks a little too hard. But there are
some upsides. We’ve cut down on our turnovers and that
was a big problem early in the year.”
He added, “we
are doing a lot of individual stuff with the players.
But we can’t beat them up. We do have to make them aware
we aren’t satisfied.”
Sarnia finished
with a 25-20 edge in shots on goal.
The Sting resume
action Thursday when they host the Peterborough Petes at
the RBC Centre at 7:35 p.m. for their only home game of
the week. Friday the Sting play at London and Saturday
night is in Sault Ste. Marie.
-
Thompson was first star while Lehner; a draft
pick of the Ottawa Senators was second star with his
second shutout of the year, while Hill was third star.
-
Shayne Campbell was in goal for Sarnia and Jesse
Raymond the backup. Overager Adam Courchaine is expected
to be out two weeks with an upper body injury. He was
hurt in Friday’s game with Windsor.
-
Forward Jesse Stoughton was back in the lineup
after missing one game. Anton Zupancic played his
second straight game on the Sting blueline.
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Sarnia’s home record is now 5-6-1-0 while they
are 10-14-1-0 overall. The Greyhounds are now 6-7-1-0 on
the road.
