SARNIA, ONTARIO

 

SARNIA STING
2010 - 2011

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Sarnia Sting at Saginaw Spirit
October 27, 2010

By DAVE BORODY

Whatever the Sarnia Sting coaching staff to light fire under overager Kale Kerbashian this week is working just fine.
Kerbashian scored his first career hat trick and added an assist in leading the Sting to a 6-3 win over the Brampton Battalion, Saturday night before 2,369 fans at the RBC Centre.

The win improved Sarnia’s record to 5-7-2-0 in the Ontario Hockey League.

Kerbashian also had a goal and two assists in Wednesday’s overtime loss to Saginaw and now has nine goals and 15 assists for 24 points on the season.

“I never thought about the seven points in two games until you just mentioned it to me,” said Kerbashian after the game. “That is my first career hat trick and it feels nice.”

The hat trick was a natural one as he scored two goals late in the second period and added one more in the third. He was the game’s first star.
Kerbashian says the coaching staff has a lot to do with his improved play.

“I wasn’t playing that well of late and the coaching staff has stressed a couple of main things and that’s simply to work hard and play defence. Add to that my linemates (Nail Yakupov and Tyler Peters) have been great. They set me up twice tonight for those second period goals. Playing with Nail is a nice plus as he makes some world class plays.”

Sting head coach Dave MacQueen says the coaching staff has spent a lot of time with Kerbashian.

“We’ve talked a lot and told him to put all the distractions behind him and be the player he can be. He was good in Saginaw and very, very good again tonight. He’s playing with a lot of energy, skating and moving the puck. His linemates seem to have found the chemistry again after broke the trio up a couple of weeks ago.”

MacQueen added, “Kale has a renewed commitment to our end of the ice. He’s finding out you can create offence by playing well in your own end.”

Peters had a goal and an assist while Yakupov had a pair of assists. The threesome have combined for 16 points over their past two games.

After allowing the game’s opening goal, Sarnia stormed back to take a 3-1 lead after the first period and added two more in the second to take a commanding 5-1 advantage after 40 minutes.

“Obviously I really liked our first 40 minutes tonight,” said MacQueen. “I thought we responded well after they scored first. We made some nice plays, especially in the second period with some give and gos. Our power play got us a big goal and our penalty killing was very good.”

He added, “I wasn’t overly happy with our third period. We sat back too much. But that’s the process with a young team. You can’t play high risk in the third period and get away with it. You develop bad habits.”

Brett Ritchie and J.C. Campagna with his first goal of the season scored the other Sting goals. Anthony Donati chipped in with a pair of assists.

Former Sting Michael Santini scored his eighth goal of the year for Brampton while Jonathan Johansson and Craig Moore also found the back of the net.

Rookie Brandon Hope got his second straight start in goal for the Sting, (the first time that’s happened this year), and he provided a solid effort making 22 saves.

A key part of the game came midway through period two when Brampton was awarded a penalty shot. The score was 3-1 at the time. But Hope looked calm and cool as he stopped the shot by Brampton’s Marcus McIvor.

“I wasn’t nervous,” said Hope, when asked about the penalty shot. “I just took it as another shot. We do it a lot of practice. I try and force the shooter to shoot the puck. I came out of my crease, cut down the angles and tried not to give him much to shoot at. We were able to feed off the shot and got a couple of big goals to go up 5-1.”

Hope added, “This is my first back-to-back starts of the year. I felt mentally prepared and the coaching staff has shown a lot of confidence in me. I thought we didn’t have any selfish play tonight and the defence had my back a lot.”

MacQueen felt Hope deserved the start.

“He played well again. He made the saves when he had to and stopping that penalty shot was key. A two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey. He made the save and then we were able to get a couple after that to give us a cushion.”

Hope is now 2-3-1 in six games.

The Sting is right back into action Sunday afternoon when they host the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds beginning at 2:05 p.m. (All kids 12 and under will be admitted for just $5).


- Kerbashian was first star with Donati second star and Brent Sullivan third star.
- Sarnia was minus three defencemen in Nathan Chiarlitti, Ron Soucie and Kyle Flemington. Josh Chapman, the team’s
fourth-round pick this year, was called up from the Sarnia Legionnaires Junior B team and saw plenty of ice.
- The Sting improved to 4-3-0-0 on home ice while Brampton lost for only the second time in six road games.
- There will be prizes for the best Halloween costumes worn to Sunday’s game.
- Sarnia was one-for-seven on the power play and Brampton zero-for-four.
- Plymouth scored in the final minute to defeat Sault Ste. Marie 5-4 Saturday night.


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