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 Sarnia Sting

Sting Lose 4-2 in Home Opener

October 4, 2014 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Sarnia Sting News Release


The Sarnia Sting fell just a little short against the Barrie Colts Friday night.

The Colts recorded a 4-2 victory in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 3,582 fans at the RBC Centre in their home opener.

The loss leaves the Sting with a 0-2-1-0 record in this young Ontario Hockey League season.

Sarnia never led in the game. After a scoreless first period, Barrie jumped out to a 2-1 advantage after 40 minutes. The Colts held a 3-1 lead in the third period before the Sting closed the gap with just over seven minutes to play.

The Colts iced the game scoring into an empty net in the final minute.

"It's disappointing. We really wanted this one," said Sting head coach, Trevor Letowski. "There was a lot of energy in the building with the special celebrations going on and we just fell short."

Those celebrations helped kick off Sarnia's 20th season in the OHL. Ten players from the inaugural team in 1994-95, along with assistant coach Rich Brown, were introduced prior to the game.

The Sting also wore their throwback jerseys from the first season.

Sarnia ran into a hot goalie in the person of Mackenzie Blackwood. He turned aside 35 of 37 shots fired his way, stopped a breakaway, and was named the game's first star.

"They have a good goalie over there, no question. But we still didn't have enough guys going. We don't have enough to have too many passengers."

Letowski added, "It was a pretty good effort. We played hard, but there were a couple of breakdowns and it cost us goals. There were a lot of positives, but the bottom line is you need to get results and so far we haven't done that."

Despite a scoreless opening 20 minutes, each team had a breakaway. Blackwood stopped Daniel Nikandrov of the Sting while Barrie's Andrew Mangipane hit the post when in alone on Sting goalie Justin Fazio. Both were shorthanded breakaways.

The Colts opened the scoring 13 seconds into period two when Roy Radke sent a low shot between the legs of Fazio off a face-off. Barrie increased their lead to 2-0 six minutes later when Josh Carrick scored on a wrist shot.

After Hayden Hodgson of the Sting ripped a shot off the goal post, Sarnia finally solved Blackwood at 18:29 on a power play when Nikandrov banged home a rebound off a Nikita Korostelev shot. Pavel Zacha also drew an assist.

With the Sting pressing for the equalizer in period three, they coughed up the puck at the Colts blue line. Barrie took advantage and Brendan Lemieux finished off a two-on-one break.

Sarnia cut the lead to 3-2 at 12:52 when Hodgson deflected home a point shot from Jeff King. Vladislav Kodola also gained an assist.

The Sting had a face-off in the Barrie zone in the final minute with Fazio on the bench, but again they turned the puck over and the Colts Joseph Blandisi scored into an open net with 49.9 seconds to go.

Sarnia finished with a 37-26 edge in shots on goal. Fazio stopped a breakaway in the third period with the score 3-2.

The 10 players from the first Sting team introduced included Letowski, Sting assistant coach Andy Delmore, Sarnia native Darren Mortier, Brendan Yarema, Aaron Brand, Scott Hay, Damon Hardy, Rob Massa, Matt Hogan and Sasha Cucuz.

"It was nice to see those guys again," said Letowski. "Some of them I haven't seen for 18 years. It was good for them to be recognized as they have gone on to their careers both in an out of hockey. For some of them it was their first time back to Sarnia. It was a good group of guys."

For Mortier, he said he didn't want to miss the occasion even though his wife is expecting a baby any day now.

Next action for the Sting is Saturday night when they travel to Erie to face the Otters. Sarnia plays in Mississauga Sunday afternoon.

The Sting has a pair of home games next weekend as they host the Saginaw Spirit Friday night and the Windsor Spitfires Saturday night. Both games begin at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

Tickets for those games are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com.


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