Sting split pair with Chatham to Open Season, News, Major Atom, 2011-2012 (Lambton Jr. Sting AAA Hockey )

ALLIANCE HOCKEY Digital Network

This Team is part of the 2011-2012 season, which is not set as the current season.
News Article
News Article Image
Sep 11, 2011 | smccarthy | 876 views
Sting split pair with Chatham to Open Season
The Lambton Sting Major Atoms opened the regular season by splitting a home and home series with the Chatham Kent Cyclones as each club came away with 2 points on home ice.



Perhaps it was the late 8pm face-off or maybe the fact that it was the first full week of school, but either way the Sting came out flat in the season opener in Chatham on Friday.  Following a scoreless first period Lambton opened the scoring early in the second as Dylan Riddell scored unassisted on a breakaway.   However, instead of motivating the Sting that goal seemed to rally the Cyclones as they scored 4 unaswered goals while outworking the Sting in all areas of the ice.  

The Sting legs got moving a little more in the third period and some strong forechecking by the line of Carson Perry, Hunter Monkhouse and Cameron Ware resulted in a goal for Monkhouse in the first minute of the period to cut the deficeit to 2 goals.  With just over 2 minutes remaining in the game defenseman Matt McIntyre scored on a screenshot from the point to pull the Sting to within 1 goal.  Lambton had a couple of chances to tie the game late but the Chatham goaltender stood tall to preserver the 4-3 victory for the Cyclones.

The following afternoon it was a much different Sting team that faced Chatham.   The boys were fired up and worked extremely hard all game and as a result were rewarded for their efforts with a convincing  5-0 victory.

Ryleigh Vanderwal would score once in each of the first 2 periods to stake the Sting to a 2-0 lead entering the third.  Josh McLean assisted on Vanderwal's first goal while Spencer Vandenboom made a great pass for the second marker.  That would be more than enough offense for Sting goaltender Liam McCarthy, who turned aside all 24 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season.

In the third period the Sting would score 3 more times to blow the game open.  First, Carson Perry would bang in the rebound on a Jaycob White shot.  Next it was McLean lighting the lamp with help from Nolan DeGurse and Matt McIntyre.  DeGurse would get the final goal on a superb redirection of a McLean pass to complete the scoring.

Next weekend the Sting travel to Zurich to play the Huron Perth Lakers on Saturday afternoon before returning to the RBC Centre to host the Sun County Panthers Sunday afternoon at 4:45.