By Carl Chimenti
The Sarnia Sting (30-17-5-3) reached the 30 win mark as they were in total control from start to finish beating the Saginaw Spirit (30-23-2-1) 6-1 Saturday night at the Dow Event Center.
The win increased their lead for third place in the Western Conference by five points over the Spirit.
Six different players scored for the Sting led by Ty Voit (Toronto Maple Leafs) who had a goal and two assists. Sasha Pastujov (Anaheim Ducks) and Easton Wainwright contributed with a goal and an assist. Cooper Way, Ryan Mast (Boston Bruins) and Luca DelBelBelluz (Columbus Blue Jackets) pitched in with one goal each. Zach Filak had two assists and Ethan Ritchie, Nolan Burke (Nashville Predators), Lukas Fischer, Joshua Hoover and Marcus Limpar-Lantz added an assist each.
Sarnia swept the three star selection as Pastujov was named third star, Wainwright the second star and Voit as the first star.
Sarnia goaltender Nicholas Surzycia was solid and near perfect in net stopping all but one of the 20 shots he faced. Sarnoa out-shot Saginaw 28-20 overall.
The game opened up as a tight checking affair with limited scoring chances. At 8:57 Burke was awarded a penalty shot but he failed to capitalize as Tristan Lennox (New York Islanders) made the save. But moments later the Sting were on the scoreboard at 9:10. Way intercepted a pass inside the Spirit end and he went to the net and beat Lennox with his 11th of the season from Filak. Sarnia opened up a 2-0 lead at 11:22 as Voit made a nice play picking up the puck near his end and then avoided a couple of Spirit players before sending a cross ice feed to Pastujov who one timed the shot past Lennox from inside the right face-off circle. Ritchie also drew an assist. The Sting out-shot the Spirit 9-7.
Sarnia added three goals in the second period before Saginaw added a late goal to break the shut-out. Wainwright (9th) scored on a rebound from his back-hand with Hoover and Limpar-Lantz assisting at 1:48. The score went to 4-0 as Voit (17th) scored at 4:31 with Burke and Fischer drawing the assists. Mast let go a blast from the right face-off circle that found the back of the net at 15:55 from both Wainwright and Filak to increase the lead to 5-0 with his sixth of the year. Matyas Sapovaliv (Vegas Golden Knights) ruined Surzycia shut-out bid at 18:58 from Olivier Savard and former Sting Theo Hill. Sarnia held the edge on the shot clock by a 9-6 margin
