The Lambton Jr. Sting AAA faced tough competition over the weekend with two games against the number one teams in the East and West Division in Alliance Hockey League action.
On Saturday the Jr. Sting traveled to Waterloo to faceoff against the Wolves and took a 4 - 1 loss. Waterloo is first in the East division (19-4-4) and second overall in the league with 42 points. Scoring the lone goal in the win was Alec Dekoning from Brock Perry and Franco Sproviero.
"We are in a playoff format right now and every game is such a huge game for us." Head Coach Jeff Perry said "I thought we played well in Waterloo yesterday. Discipline got the better of us as they scored three power play goals that cost us the hockey game."
On Sunday the Jr. Sting returned to the ice at home and defeated the league and west division leaders London Jr. Knights (19-5-5) with a final score of 4 - 2.
"I thought our discipline was better today and anytime you play good teams like we have you got to play discipline to have success."
The Jr. Sting took a 2 - 0 lead in the first period. Ethan Dupont scored both goals with Franco Sproviero and TJ Harris assisting on the first goal and Harris and Curtis Helps assisting on the second. The second period both teams battled back and forth and the score remained the same heading into the third.
In the third the Jr. Knights narrowed the gap at 6:09 with Matt McGhee scoring. TJ Harris skated in alone and scored the Jr. Sting third goal unassisted to regain the two goal lead. With 1:10 remaining the Jr. Knights added the extra man attacker and Alec Dekoning scored the fourth goal with Brock Perry and Dawson Cook earning the assist. The Jr. Knights added their final goal with just :05 seconds left on the clock and time ran out giving the Jr. Sting the win. Scott Corbett scored the final Jr. Knights goal.
London outshot Lambton 36 - 17. Nolan Hakr was outstanding in net to earn the win for the Jr. Sting. Harkr made 34 saves that included a penalty shot. Carson Poulin suffered the loss making 14 saves that also included a penalty shot that was missed by TJ Harris.
"I thought the first two periods was very good and the third we were treading water for awhile." Perry said. Hakr made a timely save for us and TJ scored a great goal with the second effort after coming back after missing the penalty shot. It's a big part of hockey getting some timely goals and timely saves and I thought that was our good fortune for us today."
The two points put the Jr. Sting in second place in the tight West Division standings race with 31 points. (13-12-5) The Jr. Sting is one point ahead of Chatham.
"This win puts us back into second place and Chatham is in London tomorrow night. Funny how the game works, but I have to say we are rooting for London tomorrow night, so we hope London does us a favour."
The Jr. Sting has two regular league games remaining. On Friday the team travels to Essex Arena to take on the Sun County Panthers and on Saturday they are in Komoka against the Elgin Middlesex Chiefs.
"We have two practices and we will be playing two desperate teams too as those two teams are in battle for that second spot. We'll prepare for Friday first because it will be big for us to go to task against Sun County. We had good results there last time so hopefully we'll get the same."
