Photo: Bob Davies

In Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, the fifth place (14-17-7-5) Soo Greyhounds took to the ice at the Memorial Gardens to host the second place (21-14-4-2) Sarnia Sting in a west division matchup on Friday, January 27th.

With their first shot of the game 7:23 into the opening period after a Sarnia three on one and catching a cross crease pass from Ethan Ritchie, Easton Wainwright lifts the Sting’s first goal over Soo netminder Samuel Ivanov’s blocker to give the visitors a 1 – 0 lead. Sandis Vilmanis drew the other helper on Wainwright’s sixth of the season. Nolan Burke fires a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle through traffic to find the back of the Greyhound net over Ivanov blocker to bring the Sting’s lead to 2 – 0. Ontario Hockey League league leader Ty Voit registered his 65th point of the season with an assist along with Ethan Del Mastro at 12:35 of the first. Shorthanded and scoring his third of the season after catching a Bryce McConnell-Barker, Caeden Carlisle fires a snapshot from the right faceoff circle through Sarnia goaltender Benjamin Gaudreau’s five hole at 8:56 of the second with Kirill Kudryavtsev notching the second contributor on the Soo’s first goal of the game. With four seconds remaining in the period, Mark Duarte breaks in on a Soo breakaway to be picked up by Justin Cloutier on a loose puck in the Sarnia crease to slide the tying goal under Gaudreau to send the Greyhounds into the second intermission tied 2 – 2. Marco Mignosa added the other helper on Cloutier’s sixth of the season.

At 13:37 of the third, Ty Voit picks up a bouncing puck off of the back boards to the left of Samuel Ivanov’s net lift the Sting’s third of the game into the back of the Greyhound net to give Sarnia a 3 – 2 lead with Del Mastro and Burke registering the assists on Voit’s goal. Cooper Way hits a puck out of midair in front of the Soo net at 16:10 to bring the Sting’s lead to 4 – 2 with Ryan Mast and Del Mastro adding the contributors on Way’s sixth of the season. With Ivanov on the Soo bench for an extra attacker with 2:05 remaining in Friday’s contest, Way sinks his second of the period into an empty Greyhound net to give Sarnia a 5 – 2 win. Nolan Dillingham and Burke drawing the assists on Way’s goal. Sting goaltender Benjamin Gaudreau turned away 30 of 32 shots in Sarnia’s win while Greyhound netminder Samuel Ivanov stopped 32 of 36 shots in the Soo’s 18th loss of the season.

The Windsor Spitfires come into Sault Ste Marie for an afternoon matinee on Sunday, January 29th in a 2:00 p.m puck drop at the Memorial Gardens.