A third period comeback attempt fell just a little short for the Sarnia Sting Saturday night.

The Belleville Bulls hung on for a 4-3 victory over the Sting in front of 2,536 fans at the RBC Centre.
The loss was the second in as many nights for Sarnia and third straight at home as their overall record dropped to 3-3-1-0. Belleville snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 2-5-0-0.

Sarnia lost the game despite directing 48 shots as Bulls netminder Tyson Teichman.

“Anytime you get almost 50 shots on goal us usually win more than you lose,” said Sting head coach Dave MacQueen.
“Unfortunately defensively we weren’t very good. We lost the one-on-one battles in our zone, the forwards were cheating and the defence were going up the ice before the puck was out of our own end.

“We were playing fire-brand hockey and you can’t play like that and expect to win games. For two periods it was like pond hockey.”
When asked if his team might have taken Belleville too lightly, MacQueen said, “If we thought it was going to be easy they certainly got a big wake-up call. The last time I checked we aren’t an elite team in this league. I’ll correct that pretty quick.”

Sarnia opened the scoring eight minutes into the game when Kale Kerbashian notched his fourth of the year as he fired a wrist shot into the top corner of the net.

But just 12 seconds later Belleville tied the game as Michael Curtis snapped home a low shot from the slot.
The Sting regained the lead at 11:57 when Brett Ritchie scored his first goal of the season converting a goalmouth pass from Alex Galchenyuk.

“It’s nice to get that first goal out of the way. It’s been bugging me,” said Ritchie. “I’ve been all over the net in the last few games, but came up short. Getting that goal seemed to give me a boost of confidence. Our line had some chances during the game.”

A tentative second period by the Sting proved costly as Belleville responded with a pair of goals to take a 3-2 lead.
Adam Payerl scored on a power play at 14:33 while Luke Judson scored at 17:40.

The Bulls extended their lead to 4-2 at 3:43 of period three when Richard Panik sent a high wrist shot past Sting goalie Brandon Hope. Panik also had two assists on the game and was the game’s first star.

Sarnia pulled to within a goal at 11:52. Nathan Chiarlitti sent Nail Yakupov in on a breakaway and the young Russian made no mistake from close range. It was his fifth goal of the season.

The Sting had a glorious opportunity to tie the game. They held a power play with a minute remaining and then were given a two-man advantage with 37.5 seconds left. But despite moving the puck around they never did get a clear shot on goal before the buzzer sounded.
“How many times did we hit the goalie in the chest or hit him in the head?” said MacQueen. “Our shot selection needs to be better. Late in the game on the five-on-three we were blowing shots wide of the net. You have to get pucks on the net and have players be willing to go to the dirty areas.”

MacQueen says he was pleased to see Ritchie finally score.

“He needs to score. He’s projected to be a first round (NHL) pick. I thought the last two games were his best ones so far. His goals will come. He is willing to go to the net and bang and crash. But there’s no question he has to find the back of the net more.”
Ritchie said the Sting were guilty of too many turnovers.

“I thought we came out pretty quick. But then we started to watch the puck. We had far too many turnovers in our own zone. We also came out flat early in the third period. We did have some chances near the end. But we need to take advantage of games like this early in the year, especially at home.”

Sarnia finished with a 48-29 edge in shots on goal. For the second straight game, Sarnia did not have a power play goal in four attempts. Belleville had one.

Sarnia’s next action is Monday in Windsor. It’s the start of three straight road games next week. That prompted MacQueen to say, “We can’t seen to win at home lately, maybe it’s a good thing were are going on the road for awhile.”

Sarnia’s next home game is not until Oct. 22 when they host Owen Sound.



- Galchenyuk’s assist means he has at least one point in all seven games this year.
- Panik was first star with Yakupov second star and Teichmann third star.
- Rookie Brandon Hope suffered his first loss of the year in goal for the Sting. He is now 1-1.
- Yakupov had a goal and an assist to take over the Sting scoring lead with five goals and eight assists.
- Rookie forward Blake Thomas was back in the Sting lineup after sitting our four games. Anthony Donati was serving the
second of a two-game suspension while Ryan Zupancic was a healthy scratch.