Sarnia Sting vs Guelph Storm
January 21, 2010
By DAVE BORODY
special to
The Sarnia Sting remains
winless in 2010.
The Sting dropped their
eighth straight game this
month in the Ontario Hockey
League falling 5-2 to the
Guelph Storm, Thursday night
before 2,656 fans at the RBC
Centre.
Like in the majority of the
games during the losing
streak, Sarnia was in this
game trailing 1-0 after the
first period and 2-1 after
the second. The Sting was
behind 3-2 with six minutes
to go before the Storm
scored two goals in the
final four minutes, one into
an empty net, to seal the
victory.
Sarnia’s inability to score
on a number of golden
opportunities was the main
factor in the loss.
And the last thing the Sting
needed to see was a hot
goalie. Guelph netminder
Brandon Foote turned aside
28 of the 30 shots he faced
and was named the game’s
first star. He made a number
of solid stops.
Associate coach Greg Walters
was in charge behind the
Sting bench as head coach
and general manager, Dave
MacQueen was scouting at a
tournament in the Toronto
area.
“We did a lot of really good
things tonight and had lots
of chances, but down the
stretch we didn’t do the
little things,” said
Walters. “We had outchanced
them 12-7 after two periods,
and then had chances in the
third period, but we have to
bare down. It was a
hard-fought game.”
He added, “we had plenty of
chances, but I didn’t see
that sense or urgency to put
pucks home when we have
those quality opportunities.
We need to go to the danger
zones and make things
happen. We also had a couple
of defensive lapses and that
hurt because we can’t make
those mistakes when we
aren’t scoring.”
Walters said the effort was
there.
“The kids played hard and
it’s too bad we didn’t see
the results. I want these
kids to have some positive
feedback. We know we are
struggling right now.”
As for facing a hot goalie,
Walters said, “their goalie
was the best player on the
ice and good for him. But we
still need that killer
instinct around the net. We
outchanced them, but just
couldn’t score. We need to
find a way to score.”
The Storm scored the only
goal of the opening period
at 13:50 when rookie Carter
Sandlak snapped a shot under
the arm of Sting goalie
Shayne Campbell from the
slot.
Guelph made it 2-0 eight
minutes into period two when
Tyler Carroll’s high wrist
shot was partially stopped
by Campbell, but the puck
had enough momentum to
trickle over the goal line.
Sarnia cut the lead to 2-1
five minutes later on a
power play when Kale
Kerbashian notched his
team-high 17th goal drilling
home a hard slapshot from
the left wing.
Taylor Beck restored
Guelph’s two-goal lead at
13:45 of period three on a
power play. But 12 seconds
later Brandon Alderson of
the Sting pulled his team to
within a goal as tipped in a
goalmouth pass from Miroslav
Preisinger. It was
Alderson’s 12th of the
season.
However the thoughts of a
Sting comeback ended at
16:58 when Michael Latta
lifted a backhand over the
shoulder of Campbell from
close range. Latta then
scored an empty net goal
with seven seconds left.
Guelph held a 33-30 edge in
shots on goal.
Preisinger had a pair of
assists for the Sting.
“The boys a frustrated right
now. Everyone wants to win,
but we just can’t snap this
losing streak. Tonight’s
game started out slowly, but
the third period was
intense. We just don’t have
any luck around the net,”
said Preisinger.
The Sting will be home again
Friday night when they host
the Niagara IceDogs
beginning at 7:35 p.m. at
the RBC Centre. It is the
only appearance of the
season for the IceDogs.
Sarnia travels to Owen Sound
Saturday night to meet the
Attack.
- Foote was first star with
Kerbashian second star and
Beck third star. Kerbashian
also had an assist while he
has now scored in four
straight games after missing
five games with a
concussion.
- Sarnia’s overall record
fell to 14-30-2-1 while they
are 7-15-1-0 on home ice.
- The Sting has allowed the
most goals of any team so
far this season at 195.
- Sarnia was one-for-five on
the power play and Guelph
one-for-four.
- Sarnia played with only
five defencemen as Brent
Sullivan and Daniel
Broussard are sidelined with
injuries.
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