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Sarnia, ON -
Head Coach Jacques Beaulieu summed up the Sarnia
Sting's 7-3 loss to the Erie Otters in two words,
"poor effort".
Erie
scored four straight on Sarnia to jump out to a 4-1
lead early in the second, and would snap a 13 game
losing skid in the process, while Sarnia is still
struggling as of late, while also dealing with a
handful of injuries and line up changes. Besides
Alex Galchenyuk who has been sidelined all season,
and Nail Yakupov who has been out for the last few
weeks, Brett Ritchie was also out of the line up
with a hip injury, while Alex Basso and Nick Latta
were also not able to play.
Sarnia
opened the scoring, as Criag Hottot got his 11th of
the season, putting a wrist shot on net that Ramis
Sadikov could only get a piece of it with his glove
before it bounced into the net for the 1-0 lead.
Greg
McKegg tied the game with a redirect in front of
Brandon Hope, and Jake Evans put the Otters in front
after Hope failed to cover up a loose puck in front,
and Evans spun and fired the puck into the back of
the net.
In the
second period, Travis Wood would put a wrist shot on
net that went into Hope's glove and came out into
the back of the net. That would be all for Hope who
was replaced by Brandon Maxwell.
But
Maxwell didn't fair much better early, as his first
shot faced produced a heavy rebound that Stephen
Harper was able to get control of and put over the
shoulder of Maxwell for the Otters fourth goal.
Sarnia
would finally get a response off the stick of Craig
Hottot who picked up his second of the game, getting
a pass from Dominic Alberga and wristing a shot by
Sadikov. But Sarnia would still trail 4-2 heading
into the third.
Connor
Brown would restore the three goal lead 24 seconds
into the third period, and Travis Wood would pick up
his second of the game after Maxwell lost his stick,
and Wood made a nice deke alone in front for the 6-2
Otters lead.
The Sting
would get one back as Dominic Alberga picked up his
4th of the season after throwing the puck on net
from the corner and having it redirect off two
skates and into the net. But Jake Evans would add
one more for the Otters on a 2 on 1 play to beat
Maxwell for the fourth time.
No
penalties were called in the 7-3 game for either
team, something Beaulieu says he has never
experienced in all his years of coaching at the
junior A level.
Connor
Murphy made his first appearance in a Sting uniform
and picked up an assist on the first Hottot goal.
But Murphy was not concerned over his performance
but rather how poorly the team played as a group.
"It's
pretty embarrassing to lose like that to a team we
are suppose to come out and get two points from"
said Murphy. "I don't even care how I do, the loss
hurts."
Murphy has
skated in a game situation this year, and felt his
conditioning was good, but his timing was a little
off.
It doesn't
get any easier for Sarnia who will have to put the
7-3 loss behind them as they head to Plymouth to
take on the first place Whalers on Saturday night.
Sarnia will return home for a Sunday afternoon game
against Peterborough. Game time 2:00 pm.
Follow Sarniasports on twitter
@sarniasports.
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