For the second Friday in a row the team travelled south this time to play the Sun County Panthers. This was another important divisional game where game can be worth 4 points.
Early in the first period the Sting took a penalty and found themselves shorthanded, but survived that storm with some effective penalty killing. Both teams exchanged scoring opportunities but neither could finish off the plays.
Sun County opened the scoring in the second period with kind of a lucky goal scored from a bad angle. But the Sting were quick to respond as Nic Direzze collected a loose puck in the slot with his backhand , brought to his forehand and ripped a nice low shot to tie the game. Assists went to Joey Ferrera and Joel Pavey on the play. The teams would exchange power plays but no more scoring occurred.
In the first shift of the third period Josh Bayne was tested but answered the call with a great save to keep the teams even, keeping his end of the bargain up allowing for the offense to perform their job. Joey Ferrera put the team up by one, as a point shot from Jordan Hurtubise hit Ferrera in the slot, the puck dropped to his feet where he spun and took a quick shot that drifted over the goalies shoulder into the net. The 2-1 lead would carry through to the latter part of the game. Unfortunately Sun County would tie the game as a shot from the wing bounced off the goalies shoulder into the net. The game would end in a 2-2 draw.
The effort produced a tie and at least 1 point was gained from this away game. Hopefully, a better result when we host EMC on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday’s matinee game featured the 1st place Chiefs from Elgin Middlesex taking on the 2nd place Lambton Jr Sting Major Peewees. Right from the opening faceoff the Sting were out to prove that last weekend’s 4 – 1 road victory over the Chiefs was not a fluke. Good early strategy and execution by the Sting kept the Chiefs bottled up in their own end and on the rare occasion EMC broke loose, Jakob Knowles in net was able to nullify the Elgin shooters. The Sting took the early lead on the power play as Joey Ferrera and Lucas Knowles teamed up to feed Dante Fuoco for a tap in tally from the edge of the blue paint. With both teams now skating and moving the puck well, the remainder of the period remained scoreless and finished with the Sting up by a goal.
The second period started with these Western Conference foes playing well and putting on a good show for the fans. The Sting would knock the wind out of EMC’s sails (much as Lucas had done the EMC defender earlier with a solid body check) by scoring 2 short handed goals on consecutive penalty kills. Nic Direzze scored both shorties with helpers going to Theo Crombeen, Curtis Marks, Alec Trusler and Joe Correia.
The 3rd opened with the Chiefs reluctantly on another power play … this time however, it was the Chiefs notching the goal to pull within 2 and make it a 3 – 1 game. The Sting again refused to be put off by the Elgin goal and effectively regained control of the game. All 3 lines supported by the D men and goaler continued to skate extremely well with high levels of intensity being shown by all. An empty netter by Theo Crombeen with a minute to go but the game on ice and sealed the 4 – 1 victory for the Sting.
The Sting would finish the weekend with their final regular season game with the Hamilton Huskies. The boys would start the game rather slow and fall behind after Hamilton would score an early first period goal to take a 1-0 lead. After conceding the early goal, the Sting would gradually take over the game. Cameron Adam would get the goal to tie the game in close after some nice work down low by Joey Ferrera and Theo Crombeen. Dante Fuoco would then score the go ahead goal on the power play on a set up from Lucas Knowles and the Sting would take a 2-1 lead after the first period.
In the 2nd period, Lambton would continue to dominate the pace of the game and Nic Direzze would put the Sting up 3-1 on another goal in close with assists going to Curtis Marks and Josh Vale. Cameron Adam would score another goal on a nice wrap around as the Sting would continue to dictate play deep in the Hamilton zone. Adam would finish off the hat trick capitalizing on a turnover deep in the Husky zone and making no mistake on the opportunity to give the Sting a commanding 5-1 lead. Hamilton would score a goal to narrow the lead to 5-2, but the Sting would play out the 3rd period with some solid defensive play and solid goal tending from Josh Bayne to improve their record to 14 wins, 5 losses and 5 ties.
Coaches comments:
“Excellent weekend of hockey! The boys had lots of fun and were successful in taking 5 of 6 very important points as we jockey for position in our race to 1st place. The upcoming week will be very important as we continue to work hard to improve our game during a time of multiple distractions as we approach the holiday season. Nutrition needs to be top of mind as we navigate our way through these very busy, fun weeks filled with joy, happiness, friends and family. Be safe and stay healthy.”