It’s what they call in the business “a sick goal.” Nail Yakupov scored 35 seconds into overtime to give the Sarnia Sting a 3-2 win over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Sunday afternoon before 2,423 fans at the RBC Centre.

The win was Sarnia’s second in as many days to pull them to within one game of the .500 mark in the Ontario Hockey League at 6-7-2-0.
Yakupov followed up a rush by Kale Kerbashian, took the puck, beat two Greyhounds defenders and then waited for goalie Chris Perugini to go down before firing the puck into the top corner of the net.

“What can you say,” exclaimed Sting head coach Dave MacQueen, when asked about the magical goal.
“I guess you can start by saying Kerbashian made the play. He was one-on four, but was still able to protect the puck.
Nail has that knack of hovering around and finding the open spaces. He showed patience to beat one guy in the slot and I thought he would shoot, but he didn’t. He then beat the defenceman wide and I figured he would shoot then, but he didn’t. He then showed more patience to wait for the goalie to go down. He didn’t have much room and found the top corner.”

MacQueen added, “you just don’t teach that stuff, it’s natural ability. The scouting reports on him were that he could stickhandle in a phone booth. Those reports were accurate.”

Yakupov’s two goals gives him 13 on the season. Along with 14 assists, his 27 points is now first overall in the OHL.
And to give you a different prospective on Yakupov’s talents, listen to what Sting goalie John Cullen had to say about him.

“It’s hard to describe, especially for my vocabulary. The way he moves on the ice is something special. He has outstanding patience with the puck and always seems to find or get to the open areas. There’s no doubt he will be a top-five pick in the National Hockey League draft in two years.”

The game would not have got to overtime without the bounce-back performance of Cullen between the pipes for the Sting.
He turned aside 36 shots and was named the game’s first star.

“I kind of gave up a softy for their first goal, but bounced back after that and gave my team a chance. The defencemen helped me a lot and blocked a number of shots. We didn’t capitalize on our power plays, but Nail came through in the end when it mattered.”

Cullen was pulled in his last start against Owen Sound and watched rookie Brandon Hope play the last two games.

“It was a rough month for me and I didn’t play my best,” said Cullen. “I got away from my game. But the coaching staff, led by goalie coach Paul Burgess has stuck with me and provided me tremendous help and confidence. Mentally the win today was huge and now I just have to keep it going.”

MacQueen said the Cullen’s efforts were encouraging.

“We said before the game it was going to be interesting how John responds. He hasn’t been that bad, but allowed a couple of bad goals during games when he probably shouldn’t have. The message was sent Hope was hot and we are going to give the opportunity to guys the coaching staff feels right with and gives us the best chance.”

He added, “I thought he was real solid and both goalies made some critical saves to give their team’s a chance to win.”

The Greyhounds opened the scoring five minutes into the game when Chad Thibodeau’s high wrist shot fooled Cullen.

Sarnia tied the game at 16:32 when Yakupov banged home a goalmouth pass from Alex Galchenyuk.
The game remained tied until 7:21 of period three when Sault Ste. Marie took the lead again on a power play when Daniel Catenacci snapped a shot over Cullen’s shoulder from the top of the face-off circle.

But 55 seconds later the Sting squared matters again when Anthony Donati took a centering pass from Brandon Francisco and his wrist shot was partially stopped by Perugini, but the puck had enough steam to get over the line. The goal was Donati’s first this year.
That set the stage for Yakupov’s goal in overtime, the only shot on goal by either side in the extra session.
MacQueen felt his team lacked some zip.

“I don’t think anybody in that room felt that was our best performance today. But we found a way to win a game and get two points. That’s important. To a man our energy level not the same and the execution level was off.”

He added, “we aren’t in the business of making excuses, but we don’t play many afternoon games. When you play a good team like the Soo, they have been on the road for three or four days and are more used to these times. You get up at a different time, your pre-game meal is different and you come to the rink at a different time. But at the end of the day we’ll take the two points, put them in the bank and move on.”

Perugini made 30 saves in goal for the Greyhounds.

The two teams have a return engagement Wednesday night in Sault Ste. Marie. Sarnia returns home for a pair of games this weekend as they host Saginaw Friday night and Ottawa Saturday night. Both games begin at 7:05 p.m.


- Cullen was first star with Perugini second star and Yakupov third star.
- Kerbashian’s assist gives him eight points in three games this week and could be in the running for OHL player of
the week honours. Yakupov had four goals and three assists.
- Sarnia was zero-for-eight on the power play and Sault Ste. Marie one-for-seven.
- Sarnia is now 5-3-0-0 on home ice and Sault Ste. Marie 2-5-2-0 on the road.
- The Sting is now 3-0 against the Greyhounds this year with five more games to go against one another.