OHL Sarnia Sting

Sting Fall 7-3 to Knights

September 5, 2014 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Sarnia Sting News Release


By DAVE BORODY

LONDON - The Sarnia Sting dropped a 7-3 decision to the London Knights in Ontario Hockey League pre-season action, Friday night in front of 7,351 fans at the Budweiser Gardens.

The loss evened Sarnia's record at 1-1. They have three more exhibition games scheduled before the 68-game regular season begins later this month.

After a scoreless first period, London exploded for five goals in just over 10 minutes to being the second period to take a commanding 5-0 lead. The Knights held a 5-2 advantage after two periods.

But the crowd was silenced 13 seconds into the third period when Sting forward Matt Ciccarelli was knocked into the sideboards from behind by Knights overage forward, Brett Welychka.

Ciccarelli lay on the ice for several minutes while being attended to by Sting trainer, Chad Oliver, along with several emergency personnel and the Knights team doctor.

The second - year forward was taken off the ice on a stretcher with an upper body injury.

Welychka was given a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind along with an automatic game misconduct.

Sarnia scored once on the five-minute power play to pull to within two goals, but they would get no closer.

Patrick White, Anthony DeAngelo and Alexander Renaud scored for Sarnia, DeAngelo also picked up a pair of assists while Jakob Chychrun, Alex Black, Nikita Korostelev and Vladislav Kodola had one assist each.

Welychka and Owen MacDonald scored two goals each for London with singles going to Matt Rupert, Aiden Jamieson and Christian Dvorak.

Overager Taylor Dupuis went the distance in goal for the Sting. He faced 34 shots, 18 of those coming in the second period.

London used two goaltenders and they combined to make 22 saves.

Each team had a pair of power play goals as only nine penalties were handed out between the two clubs.

Sarnia and London will have a return engagement Saturday night at the RBC Centre. The opening face-off is set for 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for the game will be on sale at the RBC Box Office, by calling 519-541-1717 or going online at Sarniasting.com

STING NOTES

- The Sting still has 26 players remaining in camp. When the regular season begins later this month, the plan is to start with 22 or 23 players on the roster.

- Not dressed for the Sting were forwards Hayden Hodgson, Pavel Zacha and Davis Brown, along with defencemen Connor Schlichting, Zachary Core and Josh Chapman.

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

Check out the Sarnia Sting Statistics



Ontario Hockey League Stories from September 5, 2014


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