Sarnia Stings Plymouth, 3-1, on Sunday

Photo of Victor Crus Rydberg by Rena Laverty.

SARNIA – Stephen Pierog’s goal at 4:17 of the second period proved to be the game-winner as the Sarnia Sting defeated the Plymouth Whalers, 3-1, in an Ontario Hockey League game played Sunday afternoon before 2,770 at RBC Centre in Sarnia.

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MORE COVERAGE - Terry Bridge, Sarnia Observer

Today’s game was the first for both teams after the Christmas Break.

Besides Pierog’s seventh of the year, the Sting (now 18-13-1-2) also received goals from Brandon Lindberg (career-high 12th of the year) and Zachary Core (first of the season). Sting goaltender Taylor Dupuis was named the game’s first star in stopping 29-of-30 Plymouth shots. Dupuis – also having a career year – leads the OHL with a 0.929 save percentage.

Victor Crus Rydberg scored the lone Plymouth goal, his third of the season, in the second period. Crus Rydberg has a goal and five assists for six points in five games since returning from injury, starting with three assists on Dec. 12 in London.

Plymouth (now 11-20-2-1) got right wing Connor Chatham back from injury and he started on a forward line with Crus Rydberg and Matt Mistele. Chatham had missed nine games with a lower body injury.

Lindberg scored the only goal of the first period for Sarnia, working on a delayed penalty coming to Plymouth and snapping a shot from the right circle at 7:07 past Whalers goaltender Zack Bowman, who stopped 29-of-32 shots in the game.

Pierog converted on a three-on-one into Plymouth territory, scoring in tight at 4:17 to give the Sting a 2-0 lead.

Plymouth cut the Sting lead in half with a good fundamental play. Chatham found Connor Sills breaking into the Sarnia zone and Sills snapped a shot from the right circle. Dupuis made the stop but allowed a rebound. Crus Rydberg pounced on the rebound at the hashmarks and scored at 13:33.

But Sarnia got their two-goal lead back 3:07 later, capping pressure in the Plymouth zone when Core’s shot from the high slot went through traffic and past Bowman, who appeared to be screened.

Sarnia led, 3-1, after forty minutes and seemed content to leave the score the way it was in the third period. Plymouth head coach Don Elland pulled Bowman for the extra attacker with 46.7 seconds left and called a time out with a faceoff in the Sarnia zone with 30.8 seconds remaining,

But the Whalers couldn’t get any closer. Sarnia outshot Plymouth, 32-30.

Plymouth scratches included Alex Nedeljkovic and Sonny Milano (Team USA, World Junior Championships), Yannick Rathgeb (Switzerland, World Junior Championships), Alex Di Carlo (numbers) and Alex Peters, Bryce Yetman, Danny Vanderwiel and Gianluca Curcuruto (injured).

Sarnia scratches included Anthony DeAngelo (Team USA, World Junior Championship), Pavel Zacha (Czech Republic, World Junior Championships) and Joshua Chapman, Patrick White, Davis Brown Matteo Ciccarelli and Connor Schlichting.

Plymouth is back in action on Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm, hosting Windsor at Compuware Arena (2 pm. 88.1FM WSDP).