OHL Sarnia Sting

Sting Blank Kitchener 3-0

February 6, 2015 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Sarnia Sting News Release


By DAVE BORODY

Taylor Dupuis couldn't have picked a better time to record his first shutout this season in the Ontario Hockey League.

The overage puck stopper turned aside 19 shots in leading the Sarnia Sting to an important 3-0 victory over the Kitchener Rangers, Thursday night in front of 2,248 fans at the RBC Centre.

The victory means the Sting was able to keep pace with the teams around them in the tight Western Conference.

The win also snapped a two-game losing streak for the Sting.

Although Dupuis did not face a ton of shots, he made a number of key stops at timely moments throughout the game. The Rangers hit two goalposts in the first period also aided him.

"He's been great all season and he was pretty excited after the game," said Sting head coach Trevor Letowski, when asked about Dupuis.

"There's no question he needs to be good the rest of the way. This shutout will just build up his confidence."

Letowski said he had it in his mind to play Dupuis in this game and also Friday night in Kitchener. Letowski plans to use Justin Fazio between the pipes Sunday against Mississauga.

After a scoreless opening period, the Sting jumped out to a 2-0 after two periods before scoring into an open net late in the third period.

"We managed that game very well and at an important time of the season," said Letowski. "I'm real happy with the effort. That team, (Kitchener) has been playing very well of late. To limit them to 19 shots shows what a good effort it was."

Letowski added, "This was a step in the right direction for our team after last weekend. The Ottawa game was a stinker, one of our worst games this year. We had a pretty good response in Kingston and the game could have gone either way. We feel a little short there, but to bounce back and play like we did tonight is a positive sign."

What made the win even more impressive was the fact that the Sting played with 16 skaters, two under the limit due to injuries and suspensions.

"We had only five defencemen tonight so we wanted to keep it simple. We wanted to chip pucks in and play in the offensive zone. A couple of times we got hemmed in our own end, but we didn't allow too much sustained pressure by them."

He added, "We made a couple of adjustments at practice this week. I thought our forecheck was good tonight and as a result played in the offensive zone a lot. We also took time and space away from them."

The first period didn't produce any goals, but it was not from alack of effort by both teams.

Nikita Korostelev had two great chances before the game was 10 minutes old. He rang a shot off the post from the slot and then was stopped by Rangers goalie Jake Paterson on a breakaway.

The Rangers also had their scoring opportunities and twice found iron from close range.

What turned out to be the game winner came at 1:26 of the second period on a weird goal by the Sting's Stephen Pierog.

His initial shot form the slot area on a rush went over the Kitchener net. But the puck somewhere came off the backboards right in front of the net and Pierog was right there to fire home the puck.

Kevin Spinozzi drew the lone assist on Pierog's 10th goal of the season.

Sarnia took a 2-0 lead at 7:49 when Hayden Hodgson took a cross-ice pass from Brandon Lindberg, made a nice deke in front of the net and slipped the puck past Paterson. Anthony Salinitri also assisted on Hodgson's 17th goal of the year.

The score stayed that way until the 18:40 mark of the third period.

Daniel Nikandrov won a face-off in the Sting zone, flipped a pass on the left wing to Lindberg who skated into the Rangers zone and found the open net for his 13th goal of the year.

Sarnia finished with a 30-19 edge in shots on goal.

Sarnia's penalty killing was outstanding as Kitchener was zero-for-three with the man advantage. The Sting was zero-for-five.

The Sting and Rangers have a return engagement Friday night in Kitchener. Sarnia returns home Sunday to host the Mississauga Steelheads. Game time is 4:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

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

STING NOTES

- Dupuis was first star with Korostelev second star and Pierog third star.

- Sarnia played without Josh Chapman, Pavel Zacha, Patrick White, Alex Renaud, Connor Schlichting and Josh Defarias.

- The five defencemen for the Sting were Jakob Chychrun, Jeff King, Spinozzi, Zachary Core and Alex Black. The rookie Black took a hard slapshot off the ankle in the second period, but returned to the game.

- The Sting improved their overall record to 24-19-4-2 and 14-6-2-2 on home ice.

- Sarnia has five out of six points against the Rangers this season. They play one more time.

Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games both home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.

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