LONDON – The Sarnia Sting lost a tough one Saturday night.
 

Jared Knight scored with 57 seconds left in overtime to give the London Knights a 4-3 victory over the Sting before

8,942 fans at the John Labatt Centre.
 

Sarnia does pick up a point for their efforts leaving them with a 1-0-1-0 in this young Ontario Hockey League season.

Knight converted on a two-on-one break after a Sting defenceman was caught up ice on a previous rush.

 

The Sting played most of the game with five defencemen after Brent Sullivan was banished three minutes into the first

period after the officials deemed Sullivan was the third man in a fight.

 

“It was tough losing Sully early in the game like that,” said Sting assistant coach, Trevor Letowski, who handles

the defence. “Tonight we just couldn’t get a lead. We were either tied or behind the whole night. But we also showed

something battling back like we did.”

 

Letowski added, “we had our chances in the third period when the game was tied. It would have been nice to steal two

points That part is disappointing, but at the end off the day we showed a lot. Hopefully we can learn from it.”

 

Sarnia’s two young Russian phenoms continued to impress as Nail Yakupov and Alex Galchenyuk each scored their second

goals of the season. Yakupov by far was the most dangerous player on the ice.

 

Even though the Sting had an 11-9 edge in shots on goal in the first period, London had the best scoring chance. It came

with three minutes remaining, but Sting goalie John Cullen made a nice pad save on a goalmouth pass.

 

The teams exploded for six goals in the second period, three by each team in a span of eight minutes.

 

The Knights jumped out to a 2-0 lead as Victor Terreri snapped a wrist shot past Cullen from the slot at 10:06 while

Phil Varone took advantage of a Sting giveaway to tap in a goalmouth pass 21 seconds later.

 

London’s first goal ended Cullen’s shutout string of 90 minutes and six seconds.

 

The Sting fought back to tie the game. Yakupov drilled home a cross-ice pass from Kale Kerbashian at 11:07 while

Galchenyuk scored on a hard wrist shot on a power play at 14:45.

 

After Michael MacDonald put London ahead again at 17:15 on a power play, Brandon Francisco tied it for Sarnia at 18:09

when he followed up a Brandon Alderson breakaway to deposit the rebound into the top corner of the net.

 

Both teams played cautious in the third period as the scoring chances on both sides were limited.

 

London finished with a 46-38 edge in shots on goal with Michael Houser getting the win in goal. Sarnia had just one shot

on goal and London two in the five-minute over time period.

 

Sting captain Nathan Chiarlitti said this year’s team is much different than previous years.

“First of all it was disappointing how the game ended. I know it’s a positive to gain a point and have three points

in two games. But we were aiming for two points so it’s a slap in the face we didn’t win the game.”

 

He added, “We made too many turnovers. We battled back, but it didn’t work out.  Coming back from 2-0 down was good.

We did a pretty good job on the penalty kill and Cullen was good in goal again. We need to be better with our

defensive-zone coverage.”

 

The Sting returns home for a pair of games next weekend as they host the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Friday night and

the Guelph Storm Saturday night. Both games begin at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

 

-           The Sting went with the same lineup as it their opening game win over Windsor. Kyle Flemington (suspension), J.C.

            Campagna (numbers) and Ryan Zupancic (numbers) were the scratches.

-           Former Sting assistant coach Tim Fennell was at the game. Fennell is now a sheriff in New Brunswick.

            “There’s not a day go by that I think about Sarnia,” said Fennell. “I had a great time there and loved the city.

            I still read all on the stories about the team on the Sting Website. They have a good-looking team and I wish them all

            the best.”

-           MacDonald of the Knights was first star with Yakupov second star and Varone third star.

-           Tyler Peters and Brandon Alderson had two assists each. Both players have four points each in two games.

-           The Sting announced they have traded goalie Shayne Campbell to the Ottawa 67s in exchange for an eight round draft

            pick. Campbell had been with the Sting the past two seasons, but became expendable this season when the Sting added

            Cullen in a trade and are going with third round draft pick Brandon Hope as Cullen’s backup.