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OHL Sarnia Sting

Late Goal Sinks Sting

March 1, 2014 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Sarnia Sting News Release


The Sarnia Sting gave the Erie Otters all they could handle and then someon Fridaynight.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough.

The Otters scored with 38.1 seconds left in regulation time to skate off with a 4-3 victory in front of 3,280 fans at the RBC Centre.

The loss officially eliminated Sarnia from playoff contention in the Ontario Hockey League.

Dane Fox's second goal of the game, and league-leading 58thof the season, on a nifty pass from future superstar, Connor McDavid, snapped a 3-3 tie.

The goal was tough to swallow for the Sting who fought back from a 3-1 deficit after two periods.

"Of course when you don't get the result your looking for, it's tough to take," said Sting head coach Trevor Letowski. "But we can still take away a lot of positives from that game. That's a pretty good hockey team over there. The way we fought back shows we can be a resilient team.

"We've lost some games this year late by making a mistake late in the game. In this case their fourth goal was a great offensive play. It wasn't a breakdown on our part as we had players back. It was just a real nice goal."

Letowski added, "Overall over the past couple of months we've played some good, sound hockey, even though it hasn't translated into wins. It was good to see the effort was there."

Letowski said a poor second period made the difference in the game.

"I was very happy with our first period. It was one of our best this year. Once we gave up a couple of goals in the second period, we started to get back to our bad habits. We just can't do that. We have to get pucks in deep behind their defence and make them work. When we didn't do that we struggled.

"We did the right things in the first and third periods. But it was the second period that ultimately made the difference."

The Sting scored the only goal of period one on the power play at15:49. Captain Nick Latta deflected home a point drive from Anthony DeAngelo for his 34thgoal of the season. Jimmy McDowell also drew an assist.

The Otters tied the game 37 seconds into period two when Fox finished off a two-on-one play.

A pair of turnovers resulted in Erie's second and third goals. McDavid got the second one at8:27on another two-on-one break while Travis Wood beat the Sting defence and fired a quick shot past goalie Taylor Dupuis at11:09.

Sarnia began their comeback just over two minutes into period three when ex-Otter, Hayden Hodgson backhanded home a rebound for his eighth of the year. Latta and Nikolay Goldobin assisted.

Vladislav Kodola tied the game at6:14when his sharp angle shot got past goalie Oscar Dansk. Goldobin and Nikita Korostelev assisted on Kodola's seventh goal of the year.

The Sting had a great chance midway through the period when they enjoyed a two-man advantage for 51 seconds. They had a couple of good chances, but were unable to solve Dansk.

That set the stage for Fox's game-winner in the final minute.

Dupuis played a solid game in goal for the Sting as he faced 48 shots. Dansk faced 21 shots, including just three in the second period when the Sting were outshot 19-3.

Sarnia was one-for-four on the power play while Erie was zero-for-one.

The Sting has seven games remaining in the season. They will be home againSaturdaynight when they host the Peterborough Petes beginning at7:05 p.m.at the RBC Centre.

Tickets are on sale at the RBC Box Office, by calling519-541-1717or going online at Sarniasting.com.

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