Taylor Dupuis Solid in Net as Sting Win in Barrie
friday october 31, 2014
By DAVE BORODY
BARRIE – Goalie Taylor Dupuis
didn’t start things off well
Thursday afternoon when he was
late for the team bus going from
the hotel to the Barrie Molson
Centre.
The head coach promptly fined
him.
But the overage netminder was
first on the ice with a jump in
his step and chomping at the bit
when the Sarnia Sting took on
the Barrie Colts in their
Ontario Hockey League match.
Dupuis provided a solid
performance in leading the Sting
to an important 7-1 victory over
the Colts in front of 2,937
fans.
It was Dupuis' first game of the
season after suffering a knee
injury during an exhibition game
with the London Knights in early
September.
He turned aside 29 of 30 shots
he faced and also nullified a
penalty shot against him in the
third period. (The Barrie player
shot wide on the penalty shot).
“It feel good to be back,” said
Dupuis, with a big smile on his
face after the game. “It’s hard
to put into words what the past
six weeks have been like. It’s
been very frustrating. But the
way the guy came out and played
tonight, I can’t thank them
enough.”
He added, “It was good in a way,
I didn’t get many shots early.
Usually the first 10 minutes can
dictate the game and we came out
with good structure. It
continued all game and made my
job easier.”
Sting head coach Trevor Letowski
was happy for Dupuis.
“It’s nice to have him back. We
liked what we saw of him last
year and we are hoping he can
take the next step and be an
elite player in the league. It
wasn’t easy for him after
missing that amount of time, but
he made some solid saves.”
The win snapped a four-game
winless streak for the Sting.
They now sport a 5-6-1-1 record.
“We tried to prepare the guys
tonight that this was a very
important game for the group,”
said Letowski. “We have a lot of
road games upcoming and we
wanted to get off to a good
start. The guys responded. We
executed our game plan and our
puck movement was outstanding.”
Letowski added, “When we play
like that and move the puck
around like we did, we can be a
dangerous team.”
The Sting wanted to get off to a
fast start against the Colts and
they did just that jumping out
to a commanding 4-0 lead after
20 minutes.
Brandon Lindberg opened the
scoring 2:07 when he outmuscled
a Colts defender and snapped a
shot over the shoulder of the
goalie from the left wing.
Noah Bushnell put the Sting
ahead 2-0 at 12:28 with his
first of the year. Bushnell,
playing in only his third game,
took a centering pass from Alex
Renaud and fired home a low shot
from the slot.
Sarnia’s first power play proved
productive as Pavel Zacha
drilled home a cross-ice pass
from Tony DeAngelo at 17:51.
Zacha now has six goals.
Just 52 seconds later, DeAngelo
scored his third goal of the
season, an unassisted effort.
Besides the four goals, what was
even more impressive was the
fact the Sting killed off three
minor penalties. On two of them,
Barrie failed to get a shot on
goal.
Barrie got on the scoreboard at
4:09 of period two when C.J.
Garcia’s point shot appeared to
change direction and beat
Dupuis.
But any momentum the Colts may
have received from the goal was
short-lived as the Sting
responded with three more goals.
Lindberg notched his second of
the game and fourth of the year
at 5:19 on a soft wrist shot
from the left side, Hayden
Hodgson deflected home a
DeAngelo point shot at 9:38
while Vladislav Kodola scored
his fourth of the year at 15:20.
Sarnia’s penalty killing was
outstanding as Barrie was
zero-for-seven with the man
advantage. The Sting was
one-for-three.
Barrie used two goalies, the
first being yanked after
Sarnia’s fourth goal. They faced
27 shots.
The Sting began a five-game road
trip, their longest of the
season, without two of their
brightest young stars in Jakob
Chychrun and Jordan Kyrou.
Both are competing in the World
Under-17 Challenge in Sarnia
over the next week.
Both players will not be
available to the Sting for the
entire road trip.
The Colts were missing five
regulars, three of them serving
suspensions.
Next action for the Sting is
Friday night in Sudbury before
travelling to North Bay Sunday
afternoon to battle the
Battalion.
-
DeAngelo had
a goal and two assists and
was the games first star.
Dupuis was second star and
Lindberg third star.
-
Nikita
Korostelev picked up one
assist to extend his
consecutive games points
streak to eight games. He
has seven goals and seven
assists over those eight
games. He leads the team in
scoring with 17 points.
-
As the Sting
played their first of five
straight on the road, Sarnia
never plays more than three
home games in a row
throughout the season.
-
Sarnia’s next
home game is not until
Friday, Nov. 14th when
Oshawa comes to town. They
will also be home the next
night to Sudbury. Both games
begin at 7:05 p.m. at the
RBC Centre. Tickets for all
Sting home games are on sale
daily at the RBC Box Office,
by calling 519-541-1717 or
going online at
Sarniasting.com
-
Sarnia
improved to 3-4-1-0 on the
road. They are also 5-0-0-0
when leading after two
periods.
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