The weekend’s lone game for the Major Peewee’s had them travel down the 401 to Essex where they took on the Sun County Panthers in the 30th regular season game.
The game started off on a strange play when Joey Ferrera’s shot was tipped and found the top of the net instead of the back. This was to be foreshadowing for the Sting. Sun County would take the early lead on a goal mouth scramble when the puck was not covered and the body was not played. They would take a 2 – 0 lead shortly after this by tallying a power play marker with some nice passing which led to a back door tap-in. Attempting to get within 1, Lucas Knowles would make a nice pass from behind the net to Cameron Adam out front. He was thwarted by a nice pad save which kept the score at 2 – 0.
Near the start of the 2nd the Sting would find themselves down 2 men for the 2nd time in the game as the officiating crew were finding it difficult to call a consistent game. The Sting would get on the board when some low down pressure created havoc in the Panther’s zone. The puck squirted out to the point where Alec Trusler fired a hard low shot that Joey Ferrera was able to tap in the rebound off of. Moments later the Sting almost drew even on a 2 on 1. The Sun County goaler flashed the leather to deny Lucas Knowles’ near snipe. Continuing to apply the pressure, Cameron Rombouts muscled his way up the side boards and fed a pass out front where Lucas Knowles’ deflection rang the post … unlucky! Despite all the Sting pressure, the Panthers were able to pad their lead to 2 goals again as Josh Bayne was beaten high on the glove side from the deep slot with just over 2 minutes to go in the second period.
The third started with Sun County on the power play (again) they were able to notch another and take a commanding 4 – 1 lead in what was shaping up to be a lopsided game in the home team’s favour. Joe Correia would however answer right back for Lambton with a point shot that found the back of the net drawing the Sting back within 2. Would this be the dreaded 2 goal lead for the Panthers? Midway through the 3rd, Josh Bayne made some key saves to keep it at just a 2 goal deficit. The Sting found themselves up 2 men (for a change) for 90 seconds at the 6 minute mark looking to score and get within 1. The combination of Knowles to Trusler to Correia almost worked as Correia’s point blast squeezed through the Panther goalers wickets … BUT the defender was able to shovel the puck out of harm’s way … again unlucky! With 90 seconds to play and the faceoff deep in the Sun County zone, the Sting pulled their goaler and went with 6 attackers. Despite some excitement this was to be as close as they’d get as the game ended in a 4 – 2 loss.