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OHL Saginaw Spirit

Spirit Stifle Firebirds in 4-3 Shootout Victory

December 4, 2015 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Saginaw Spirit News Release


FLINT, MI. - On Friday night, the Spirit headed south to take on their I-75 rival, the Flint Firebirds. Friday's contest marked the fifth of eight games in the inaugural Coors Light I-75 DivideCup series. The Spirit earned their first win at the Dort Federal Event Center, after Saginaw's Dylan Sadowy secured a 4-3 shootout victory over the Flint Firebirds.

In the first period, an untimely penalty on the Spirit allowed the Firebirds to take a one-goal lead at the 3:25 mark. With Keaton Middleton in the box for holding, Nicholas Caamano slipped the puck past Saginaw's goaltender Evan Cormier, giving the Firebirds a 1-0 lead. Saginaw was able to keep Flint from building their lead until 19:01 of the first period. The Firebirds caught the Spirit in the midst of a line change, opening up aforcible scoring opportunity for Flint's offense. It was Cullen Mercer who took advantage of the play, reinforcing Flint's lead by a score of 2-0. Despite the two-goal deficit, the Spirit outshot the Firebirds 13-11 in the first period.

Mitchell Stephens, t he Tampa Bay Lightning prospect who returned to lineup after missing 19 games with an injury, made his presence felt with a backhand shot that beat Flint's Alex Nedeljkovic to put the Spirit on the board at 8:59 of the second period. Aretmov assisted Stephens' sixth goal of the season and helped as the Spirit sliced into Flint's lead to make it a 2-1 game.The Spirit carried play throughout the second period with a 12-10 shot advantage.

In the third period, the Spirit took the lead on back-to-back goals in a matter of 49 seconds to go up 3-2 over the Flint Firebirds. Artem Artemov was first in the scoring endeavors, as he went backdoor on Alex Nedeljkovic to tie the game on his ninth goal of the season. Mitchell Stephens and Kris Bennett were credited with t he assist on the play. Connor Brown continued in the scoring efforts 49 seconds later, giving Saginaw their first lead of the night at the 1:09 mark. The Spirit's 3-2 lead held until Flint's Connor Chatham tied things up again at 8:48 of the period. The remaining minutes of the third period shaped up to be a hard fought effort by both teams. However, Saginaw and Flint were unable to net one more tally, forcing the game into overtime.

After countless scoring attempts in overtime by the Spirit and the Firebirds, the game headed to a shootout. In the second round, Dylan Sadowy beat Alex Nedeljkovic to secure a 4-3 Spirit victory for the first time at the Dort Federal Event Center. Final shots on goal favored the Saginaw Spirit, 49-31.

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