Sting Close out Preseason with a Win
Published on September 12, 2014 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Sarnia Sting News Release
The Sarnia Sting completed their pre-season part of their Ontario Hockey League season with a 4-2 victory over the Windsor Spitfires, Friday night at the RBC Centre.
Sarnia finished with a 4-1 record in exhibition play.
They now have a two-week break before opening the regular season with a pair of road games, Sept. 26th in Sault Ste. Marie and Sept. 27th in Saginaw. Their home opener is Oct. 3rd against the Barrie Colts.
After spotting Windsor a 1-0 lead after one period, the Sting took a 3-2 advantage after two periods before scoring the only goal in period three.
A pair of rookies accounted for all of the scoring for Sarnia as Jordan Kyrou and Ryan Vendramin notched two goals apiece. Jakob Chychrun, Pavel Zacha and Alex Renaud picked up assists.
Logan Brown and Aaron Luchuk scored for Windsor.
Sting head coach Trevor Letowski gave his assessment of the game.
"It was kind of sloppy. The puck was bouncing a lot and not a ton of flow. We had some good spurts. The message after the second period was to manage the puck better in the third period and we did that. Early in the game we were squeezing our sticks a little too tonight."
Letowski knows exhibition records mean nothing as far as wins and losses go, but they do serve a purpose.
"Overall when you look at it, I'm happy with the games. We've been able to do a ton of teaching by the coaching staff and we've seen progress. That's what we wanted to accomplish. It's going to be different this year. The expectation is to win a lot of hockey games."
For the first time in many years, the Sting will enjoy a two-week break before starting the regular season instead of just a one-week break.
Letowski says he's happy with that.
"The exciting part is we are going to have 10 more practices before the season begins. To this point we've only had seven or eight. We know there is a lot to work on. The coaching staff has been very detailed on our systems and structures and at times it's been a bit overwhelming to some players. But we will continue to work on that."
He added, "Conditioning is always a factor at this point of the season. We may need to have some upbeat practices or simulate games. The only negative I can see is from being a former player, no games for two weeks is a long stretch."
Justin Fazio continued to shine in goal for the Sting. He played almost 50 minutes turning aside 27 of 29 shots. He made a number of solid stops. Fill-in Steven Taylor made three stops in the final 10 minutes of the third period.
Sarnia fired 35 shots at Spitfires goalie Brendan Johnston.
The Sting went zero-for-six on the power play while Windsor was zero-for-three.
Letowski is more than pleased with second round pick, Kyrou, who was named the game's first star.
"You can see tonight he is a smart player. He's got better as camp has gone along. He scored a couple of nice goals tonight. He is definitely going to contribute offensively and push players for ice time. That doesn't happen much with 16 year-olds, but it's good for the team.''
Tickets for the Sting home opener, Oct. 3rd against Barrie are on sale daily at the RBC Box Office, calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com. Season tickets are also on sale.
STING NOTES
- Kyrou was first star with Vendramin second star and Windsor's Brown third star.
- Not dressed for the Sting were Josh Chapman, Noah Bushnell, Anthony DeAngelo, Hayden Hodgson, Patrick White, Matt Ciccarelli and Taylor Dupuis.
- Defenceman Connor Schlichting left the game midway through period one with an undisclosed injury and did not return.
- The Sting will be without second year forward, Noah Bushnell for the first 10 games of the regular season after being suspended by the league after review of a hit to the head on a London Knights player in a game a week ago.
- The Sting currently has 26 players on their roster.
Dave Borody is a freelance writer who covers Sting games home and away and also does features for the Sting Website.
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