By Dave Paul
The Sarnia Sting played a
good game against a very good team, Friday night at
RBC Centre, but wound up dropping a 4-3 decision in
an overtime shootout.
It was a
tightly-contested, see-saw battle in which neither
team held more than a one-goal lead at any point
during the contest.
Although play was fairly
balanced, the Sting (4-5-1-1) actually outshot
Belleville (now 9-2-0-0 on the season) in all three
periods and 46-30 overall.
After a scoreless first
period, the teams traded a total of four goals in a
less-than-seven-minute span of the second. The
Bulls' Remi Elie opened the scoring on a power play
at 3:38. A minute-and-a-half later, Pavel Zacha tied
the game, scoring his fifth of the season.
Jordan Subban restored
the Belleville lead shortly after that, but the
Sting pulled even again when Brandon Lindberg beat
Belleville goalie Charlie Graham at 10:33.
Sarnia got its first lead
of the game when Anthony DeAngelo, celebrating his
19th birthday, scored a pretty goal at 3:38 of the
third. However, that lead was also fairly
short-lived. Belleville defenceman Justin Lemcke
beat Sarnia goalie Justin Fazio just under five
minutes later to knot the game at 3-3 and that is
the way the score stood at the end of regulation
time.
Although neither team was
credited with an official shot on goal during the
five-minute overtime period, the Sting nearly won
the game with a couple of great chances late in the
session.
Sting shooters Nikita
Korostelev and Pavel Zacha were stymied in the
shootout, although Korostelev appeared to come very
close to beating Graham with the opening shot of the
breakaway contest. The Belleville goalie may have
kicked the puck out of the air with the back of his
pad as it fluttered toward the goal, just before it
crossed the goalline.
Welychka and Subban both
scored shootout goals for the Bulls.
The Sting host the Ottawa
67's Saturday night at RBC Centre.
