Wells manages to shake off bad news
Goaltender makes 48 saves in 3-1 loss in Sarnia
SARNIA – If there was any question how Dylan Wells would handle the disappointment of not being invited to Canada’s national junior selection camp he answered it on the weekend.
Wells turned in another solid effort Saturday night even if it was in a losing cause. He was brilliant making 48 saves before an empty-net goal secured the Sarnia Sting a 3-1 win before 2,786 fans at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
It was a tall order for the Petes to face the CHL’s No. 3 ranked team with just 16 healthy skaters on their third game in three nights. To have a chance your goalie has to hold you in the game and Wells did that with Sarnia holding a 51-26 shots edge. Already missing four regulars to injury the Petes were also without Matt Timms and Matyas Svoboda to illness.
“It wasn’t the news I wanted earlier in the week,” Wells said, “but what happened has happened. You can’t really control that. I thought about it and tried to put it behind me the best I can and play for the team in front of me.”
The Petes rallied for a 5-4 overtime win against Sudbury on Thursday, got a late goal to force overtime in a 3-2 loss in London on Friday and took Sarnia to the final minute.
“We took a step in the right direction,” Wells said, as the Petes try to shake off a tough November.
Petes’ assistant coach Andrew Verner experienced a similar disappointment at 19 and spoke at length with Wells earlier in the week.
“The best thing to do any time you get disappointment or some tough news in your life is usually to go back to work or getting on with your regular days,” Verner said. “I just told him to take a deep breath. He’s an NHL-signed goaltender who is looking at a pro career for 15-plus years. That was my message to him. It’s a shortterm disappointment for sure.”
Verner said they knew it was a tall order to face Sarnia with such a short bench.
“We hung around and obviously Wellsy was as good as Wellsy could be. We had a power play late and a chance to pull our goalie. The guys battled but the magic wasn’t there like it had been the last two games,” said Verner. “I’ll give our young D some credit. They really held in and ate up some good minutes.”
Being close is little solace, though, as the Petes want desperately to climb back into the race atop their conference.
“We need points and with the roster as it currently is looking for that big eight-game winning streak, not enough guys are playing well enough to go on that right need,” said Verner. “To get to those numbers we need everyone contributing at or near their max.”
The Petes were fortunate to escape the first period down just 1-0 as Wells stopped 17 shots. Sarnia broke through on a twoon-one after the Petes failed to keep the puck in at the Sarnia blue-line. Sean Josling converted the pass from Hugo Leufvenius at 3:15.
Pavel Gogolev put Chris Paquette’s centring pass shortside on Justin Fazio 41 seconds into the second period. The Sting
Sting 3 Petes 1
Petes record: 15-14-1-1
Sting record: 24-6-2-0
3-stars: 1. Ryan McGregor (S); 2. Dylan Wells (P); 3. Sean Josling (S) Hardest Working Pete: Semyon Der-Arguchintsev
Next for the Petes: Host the
Ottawa 67’s Thursday at the PMC. restored their lead with the teams playing four-on-four 2:07 later. Ryan McGregor snapped a wrist shot home from the top of the faceoff circle on the rush.
The Petes dodged a bullet 1:08 into the third when a Sarnia goal was called back on an off-side after video review. Drake Rymsha came out of the penalty box to join a rush and put Adam Ruzicka’s pass by Wells. Wells made a brilliant glove save off Rymsha with a little more than 10 minutes left. Ex-Pete Nick Grima took a shot that dropped in behind Wells but never crossed the line.
The Petes came close to tying it on a power play with seven minutes left as Zach Gallant got a couple of whacks at a puck in front of Fazio. Ruzicka put it away with an empty-net marker at 19:33.