OHL Sarnia Sting

Sting Pick up Valuable Point in SO Loss

Published on January 26, 2014 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Sarnia Sting News Release


It was a case of the glass half-empty or half-full, depending how you look at it, for the Sarnia Sting Sunday afternoon.

The Sting lost 8-7 in a shootout to the Windsor Spitfires in front of 2,928 fans at the RBC Centre.

Sarnia did gain a valuable point in their battle to gain a playoff spot in the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League. Sarnia is now just three points back of Plymouth for eighth place as the Whalers lost 4-2 to Sault Ste. Marie.

That's the glass half-full.

But anytime you score seven goals in your own rink and don't win the game, that's the glass half-empty.

"We would have liked two points, especially this time of year," said Sting head coach Trevor Letowski. "But the guys dug deep. There was chaos in the second period. We got down 6-3 and were playing three games in three nights. But to come back the way we did, I'm happy to get a point. That's a positive."

Letowski said he was surprised when learning five of the seven Sarnia goals were scored by defencemen.

"I guess you can chalk that up to the type of game it was. It was back and forth and pretty loose on both sides. That meant the defencemen got more opportunities offensively."

The game was not for the fate of heart if you preferred defence to offence. Both teams took turns generating offence and capitalizing on the mistakes of the opposition.

The game was a seesaw battle from start to finish. The teams were tied 3-3 after the first period before Windsor jumped out to a 6-3 advantage by the three minute mark of period two.

But the Sting responded with four straight goals in 13 minutes and took a 7-6 lead with 10 seconds left in period two.

Windsor tied the game two minutes into period three on a power three. That would be all of the scoring until the shootout.

Windsor scored twice in the shootout and Sarnia just once.

Josh Ho-Sang scored what turned out to be the deciding goal in the shootout. It capped off a wonderful afternoon for Ho-Sang who had three goals and one assist in regulation time and was the game's first star.

Trevor Murphy added two goals while Slater Koekkoek and Remy Giftopoulos notched singles to complete the Spitfires scoring.

Anthony DeAngelo led the Sting with a pair of goals. He now has 13 on the season. DeAngelo leads all OHL defencemen in scoring with 13 goals and 47 assists for 60 points.

Joshua Chapman scored his first goal of the season and added an assist while Kevin Spinozzi recorded his first goal in a Sting uniform and also picked up an assist.

Jimmy McDowell (12th), Davis Brown (10th) and Vladislav Kodola (5th) scored the other Sting goals. Jeff King and Daniel Nikandrov added two assists each.

Taylor Dupuis went the distance in goal for the Sting and faced 44 shots while two Windsor goalies faced 36 shots. Dalen Kuchmey took over in the third period for Alex Fotinos.

Letowski discussed why he stayed with Dupuis the entire game.

"The goals he allowed weren't that bad. Even when the score was 6-3, I knew we weren't out of it. The type of game it was I thought we could come back and we did. Taylor's a fighter and battler and he made a couple of big stops in the third period and in overtime."

Sarnia had only two power play chances and scored on one of them while Windsor was one-for-five with the man advantage.

The Sting now prepare for the third straight weekend of three games in three nights this coming weekend.

It begins Thursday when the Sting hosts the Belleville Bulls at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre. Sarnia travels to Guelph Friday night before returning home Saturday to battle Mississauga at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

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

STING NOTES

- Ho-Sang was first star with DeAngelo second star and Chapman third star. Spinozzi was the hardest working player of the game.

- Sarnia again had 18 players dressed, including only 10 forwards.

- The Sting have just one shootout win in six attempts this season.

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

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from January 26, 2014


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