Sarnia Jr. Sting Minor Atom A/AA
 Defeated 4 – 1 by St. Thomas Stars

The Sarnia Jr. Sting Minor Atom A/AA team was defeated by the St. Thomas Stars on Saturday September 29 at Sarnia Arena by a score of 4 – 1.  However, the final score was not a true reflection of the game played, as the Jr. Sting put forth a good effort which displayed two teams of comparable strength.

submitted photos

St. Thomas opened up the scoring one minute, five seconds into the game when the Jr. Sting had trouble clearing the puck and the Stars managed to tuck one in over Jr. Sting’s goaltender Nicholas Coady.  Undeterred by the Stars’ goal, the Jr. Sting asserted some pressure and were able to prevent the Stars from getting the puck out of their own end for the next five minutes of the game.  However, the Jr. Sting couldn’t capitalize and the score remained 1 – 0 for the Stars. 

The game remained 1 – 0 until the two minute mark of the second period when one of the Stars’ offence managed to get behind the Jr. Sting defense and found the puck for a break-away goal to bring the score to 2 – 0.  Charged with a second wind the Jr. Sting again asserted pressure on the Stars, this time finding the net to score the Jr. Sting’s only goal at the 14 minute mark of the third period.  The goal came from Justin Riley-Meyer who, through sheer effort, forced his way to the net and found the mesh behind the Stars goaltender. 

With the score now 2 – 1 for the Stars, they found themselves under fire as the Jr. Sting challenged for another goal with good opportunities from Jarret Marks and Justin Riley-Meyer who rang the left-side post from the high-slot.  To no avail, the Jr. Sting’s chances were answered with a flurry of attempts by the Stars.  The Jr. Sting were able to fend off these attempts with good goaltending, great defensive plays from Ryan Marks, and a remarkable back checking save from Nathan Cooper.  However, the Stars did eventually find the Jr. Sting net at the 2 minute mark of the third period to widen the lead by two making it 3 - 1.  With about one minute remaining, the Jr. Sting pulled their goalie in an attempt to add some goals but the Jr. Sting were unsuccessful and the Stars managed to add another goal into the empty net to bring the final score to 4 -1.