Sarnia Jr. Sting Minor Atom A/AA
 Defeated by a Strong London Jr. Knights - Gold

In regular season competition on Tuesday night October 2^nd at the Clearwater Arena, the Jr. Sting found themselves facing a strong London Jr. Knights - Gold hockey club.

The Jr. Knights opened up the scoring at the 6 minute mark of the first period when, after a failed attempt to clear the defensive zone, a shot was deflected over the glove of Jr. Sting’s goaltender Nicholas Coady.  The Jr. Sting challenged for a goal but were denied a few times before the Jr. Knights added their second mark for the night.  At the one minute mark of the first period, the Jr. Sting registered their first goal when defenseman Jarret Marks stopped a Jr. Knights breakout and fed a pass to Tyler McLean in front of the opposing team’s net.  McLean’s first shot was stopped by the Jr. Knights’ goalie but the persistent Jr. Sting pushed the puck past the goalie and into the net.  Noah Tardif was awarded the goal, while Nic Day and Tyler McLean each picked up an assist.  The period closed with the Jr. Sting trailing the Jr. Knights 2 – 1.

Through the second period the Jr. Sting battled hard but, in spite of some outstanding goaltending by Nicholas Coady, who stopped a few breakaways including a 2-on-0, the Jr. Sting were unable to shutdown the strong London team, who added two more goals to finish the period at 4 – 1.

The Jr. Sting opened the third period with some good physical play lead by Jacob Caughlin but the Jr. Knights were relentless in their attacks and, at about the 10 minute mark, added 3 more goals in quick succession.  With little defensive support for Nicholas Coady, who was playing an exceptional game, the Jr. Sting put in Affiliate Player goaltender Noah Caverly, who played well and finished the last 7 minutes of the third period.  The Jr. Knights still on the hunt added 3 more goals on the beat-down Jr. Sting to bring the total to 10.  At the 2 minute mark of the third period, the Jr. Sting mustered some offense from the Jr. Knights right defensive corner when Lucas Banninga put forth a great sacrificial effort and placed a pass on the tape of teammate Austin Freer who tipped the pass around London’s goalie onto Justin Riley-Meyer’s stick for the tap in.  The game ended 10 – 2 for the victorious Jr. Knights.

The Sarnia Jr. Sting Minor Atom A/AA will work on defensive strategies at this Thursday night’s practice as they prepare for the Avalanche Tournament in North York over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.