Sting waste strong start in loss to Spitfires
A good start wasn’t nearly good enough for the Sarnia Sting to pull off a win Friday.
Article content
A good start wasn’t nearly good enough for the Sarnia Sting to pull off a win Friday.
They dominated the first five minutes while taking a 1-0 lead over the Windsor Spitfires before a crowd of 2,612 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The lead didn’t last long. The Spitfires replied with five consecutive goals, including two in the first period, en route to a 6-3 win.
“We didn’t put a full 60 minutes together, but we did show spurts, I thought, of some good play,” Sting defenceman Ryan Mast said. “We’ve just got to regroup and put a full effort together and I think we’ll get a better outcome.”
The loss dropped the Sting (4-2-0-0) into a second-place tie with the Saginaw Spirit (4-2-0) in the Ontario Hockey League’s West Division, one spot below the Spitfires (4-0-1-0).
The Sting and Spitfires have split their first two meetings this season. The visiting team has won twice.
Nolan Burke staked the Sting to a 1-0 lead by banging in a rebound at 3:46 on a power play.
“We actually came out pretty strong,” Mast said. “I think we had 10 shots before they even had one.
“Then we gave up a couple goals, got a bit discouraged maybe and didn’t really pick it back up until the third.”
The Sting had chances to pad their lead early but couldn’t get another shot past Spitfires goalie Matt Onuska.
“If you get two, three, it kind of puts a lot of pressure on them to either wake up or shut down for the rest of the game,” Sting forward Max Namestnikov said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lucky bounce for it to go in.
“They took that chance to wake up and they pushed back. We just couldn’t find a way to push back against them.”
Ryan Abraham tied the score at 9:34 by tapping in a cross-crease pass from Jacob Maillet.
Colton Smith put the Spitfires ahead at 19:12 on a breakaway. The teams were down to four skaters apiece when he slipped behind the Sting’s defence, took a pass at the blue-line and went in alone on netminder Ben Gaudreau.
Smith scored again 1:11 into the second period.
Nicholas DeAngelis and Maillet then tallied 1:24 apart midway through the frame for a 5-1 lead.
Angus MacDonell ended the Sting’s scoring drought at 9:14 of the third period.
Namestnikov cut the Spitfires’ lead to 5-3 at 17:28 with Gaudreau on the bench for an extra skater.
It was the first goal of the season for the second-year forward.
“I’ve tried to stay positive lately,” Namestnikov said. “I haven’t been up on the scoreboard, … but I feel like I’ve been doing the little things and I got rewarded today, which feels nice.”
Abraham scored an empty-netter to end the Sting’s comeback hopes.
The Sting will visit the Mississauga Steelheads on Sunday. It will be their first regular-season trip to the Eastern Conference since late in the 2019-20 season.
They played only Western Conference foes last season as the OHL tried to limit travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a lot of guys’ first game versus an Eastern Conference team in their OHL careers. It’ll be exciting and we’re excited to get over there,” Mast said.
Gaudreau finished with 21 saves and Onuska made 30.
The Sting lost defenceman Josh Hoover late in the first period when he received a major penalty and game misconduct for head-checking.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.