Minor Atoms Earn a Split on the Weekend
The Minor Atoms played two games at home this weekend, the first was a win against Windsor 5-3 and the other was a loss to Chatham-Kent 2-1.
Saturday
The Windsor Spitfires came into town looking to build on their already good record against the struggling Sting. But instead of falling the Sting played a strong game and handed the Spits their 3rd loss of the season.
The Spitfires opened the scoring within the first minute of play to take the early lead. This seemed to serve the boys a wake up call as they began to play a tight checking game. The Sting would eventually tie the game with 13 seconds left in the period, as Carson Payne passed it off to Nolan Farr who scored.
In the second, the Sting took full control of the game, scoring 3 unanswered goals. First, while on the PP, Joe Correia made a beautiful D-to-D pass to Duncan Core who shot from the point which was eventually tipped by Josh Vale. Then it was Cameron Adam who won the faceoff in the offensive zone and dished it off to Dante Fuoco who beat the goalie. Finally, while on the powerplay again, Brett Allardyce pinched in from the blueline and made a centering pass to N. Farr who redirected it into the net. Meanwhile, back in our end our defense kept the Windsor shooters away from the front of the net. Sting were up 4-1 going into the 3rd period.
N. Farr would score early in the period to complete his hat trick, assisted by Ben Arthurs, which seemed to put the game out of reach. Windsor did score 2 more later in the period but it was indeed too much of a lead for them to overcome.
Sunday
On Sunday it was Chatham-Kent that faced off against the Sting in what turned out to be one of those games where you deserved to win but it just wasn't meant to be.
The Sting came out fast and played hard but just couldn't seem to bury the puck. Penalties became a bit of a problem, which led to the Cyclones drawing first blood on the powerplay. The Sting did respond however, with a PP goal of there own. Some good puck pursuit led to a goal by Cameron Rombouts, assisted by Theo Crombeen and Josh Vale.
The Sting would continue the pressure on the Cyclones generating numerous scoring chances but they just couldn't score. Whether it was the Chatham goalie who stood on his head, robbing shooters point blank, hitting posts or the refs calling no goals in 3 separate situations, the Sting seemed destined not to score.
Late in the 3rd period the Cyclones would get a good bounce and capitalized on their chance. The final result was 2-1 in a game where the Sting completely dominated as shown with the 39-6 shot count.
