The Sarnia Sting’s Achilles’ heel tripped them up again on Friday.
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The Sarnia Sting’s Achilles’ heel tripped them up again on Friday.
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Their powerplay was shut out and their shorthandedness allowed two goals in a 5-2 loss to the Erie Otters in front of 500 fans at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The Sting are in the bottom five of the Ontario Hockey League in both special teams categories.
They trailed just 3-2 until the Otters retired with two goals into an empty net.
“We’ve shown in the jumps that we’re a really good team, but we have to find that consistency to put it all together,” Sting forward Nolan DeGurse said. “(It was) a close game. They won the special team battle. That’s kind of what it boiled down to.
The Stings (14-16-3-1) retain the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs with 32 points, one more than the Otters (14-18-1-2) and Saginaw Spirit.
While the Stings have lost three in a row, the Otters are surging with three straight wins and points in nine of 11 games (8-2-0-1).
The Otters opened the scoring on the power play. Brendan Hoffmann hit a rebound on the doorstep at 10:50 of the first period.
“We have to be more proud of getting pucks out and winning battles,” Sting defenseman Ethan Ritchie said. “I think getting into our zone and keeping possession in our zone is way too easy right now.
“I think part of it is just that desire. You must want it more than them. Right now, on the power play, they want to score more than we don’t want to score. »
Ritchie tied the game 3:01 into the second period when he drove untouched from the blue line to the Otters net.
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Just 32 seconds later, Brendan Sellan bounced back to put the Otters back on top. They led the rest of the way.
Daniel D’Amato scored the Otters’ second power-play goal at 14:51 for a 3-1 lead at intermission.
The Sting ranks 16th in the OHL in shorthandedness with a 75.7% success rate. They are even worse at home with 71.1%.
“We give teams too much respect,” Ritchie said. “A lot of these power plays, we’re a little too passive.
“You see tonight, Erie is obviously an extreme example, but they don’t stop skating, they don’t stop pressing all the time they’re on the power play. This is obviously a lot harder to deal with than if you just let them have the area and let them settle. I think part of that too is just being more aggressive and tenacious.
The Sting’s power play ranks even lower than his penalty kill at 18th with a 16.1% success rate. At home, this drops to 13.6%.
Those special teams contribute to Sting’s home record of 5-10-2-1, which is the second-worst in the OHL.
“Our coaching staff is doing a great job preparing us,” DeGurse said. “A lot of it comes down to execution. Obviously at home I don’t know exactly what it is, but we struggled here. It’s something we’re going to have to figure out sooner rather than later. late.
The Sting made less than a point midway through the third period on Marko Sikic’s goal.
Losing goaltender Anson Thornton made 23 saves. He and fellow goaltender Sting Ben Gaudreau got dressed after missing two games due to OHL COVID-19 protocols.
“Anson played really well tonight,” Ritchie said. “He’s had a lot of adversity this season, just a lot of bad luck. He has a concussion, comes back, has a good game, then he gets COVID.
“He’s a great soldier, he has a great attitude and I was really happy with his game tonight.”
The Sting were once again understaffed at fullback with just five healthy defenders. Ryan Pryce joined the injured Ryan Mast on the sidelines.
Sellan and Elias Cohen scored the empty nets for the Otters. Nolan Lalonde made 29 saves.
The Sting will visit the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday.
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