Spitfires swat Sting for 5-4 overtime win
SPITFIRES 5, STING 4 (OT)
The Windsor Spitfires have had trouble protecting leads at times this season.
It was their turn to come back Friday.
The Spitfires rallied from a twogoal deficit in the third period to beat the Sarnia Sting 5-4 on Daniel D’amico’s overtime goal before 2,816 fans at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
“It’s a good Christmas present for me,” D’amico said. “Couldn’t ask for anything else.”
The Spitfires go into their holiday break on a three-game winning streak.
D’amico rifled a slapshot from the slot past Sting netminder Ethan Langevin 31 seconds into OT after getting a pass from Tyler Angle on a three-on-two rush.
“I seen Tyler coming down. Good pass, hard shot, and that’s it,” D’amico said.
The Spitfires scored three goals in the third period while outshooting the Sting 20-9.
“We start slow, but we always end up coming back and have a strong third period,” D’amico said. “That’s all we can ask for from our coaching staff and players. That’s all we need to do — just come hard.”
It was the second straight overtime game for the Sting, who hadn’t gone to OT all season before losing in sudden-death Thursday in Saginaw.
The Sting are on a five-game point streak despite losing two in a row.
“It’s hard to lose games like that,” Sting centre Theo Hill said. “You’re close. You’ve just got to learn to pull away with something like that and find a way to win.”
Jacob Perreault led the Sting with two goals. The red-hot sophomore winger has 17 goals, including seven multi-goal efforts, in his last 16 games.
Perreault opened the scoring at 7:11 of the first period.
Kyle Mcdonald drew the Spitfires even in the second at 3:12.
The Spitfires soon had a chance to go ahead on the game’s first power play.
However, Sting leading scorer Sean Josling put a backhander past goalie Xavier Medina for a short-handed breakaway goal at 7:24.
Just over a minute later, Josling went to the penalty box, but the Spitfires came up empty again on the power play.
The Sting had better success with a man advantage.
Perreault made an end-to-end rush on a power play and scored his second goal of the night at 16:34 for a 3-1 lead.
Will Cuylle began the Spitfires’ comeback in the third period by scoring at 4:57.
Cole Purboo followed with the tying goal at 7:31. He tipped D’amico’s pass over the glove of diving Langevin.
“It’s just keeping our composure and not getting down on each other,” D’amico said about the comeback.
“Just keeping positive and hope for the next one to go in.”
Ryan Roth restored the Sting’s lead just over three minutes later. He scored from the slot at 10:38 off Perreault’s pass from behind the net.
The Spitfires tied the score again on Connor Corcoran’s slapshot from the point at 13:40.
Medina made a point-blank pad save on Josling with 1½ minutes left to preserve the tie. He finished with 35 saves.
Langevin made 40 saves.
The Spitfires are off until Saturday, Dec. 28.