67's fall short of comeback against Sting

The Ottawa 67’s wrapped up a tough weekend on the road Sunday afternoon, with their third loss in as many days, this time to the Sarnia Sting by a score of 5-4.

The Sting took a hold over the 67’s early on, taking a two-goal lead into the dressing room after the first. Matt Mistele made it 3-0 just 2:51 into the second period, making a comeback seem out of reach for Ottawa.

It was Mistele’s second of the game. He also opened up scoring 10:10 into the first, a goal celebrated by the launching of bears onto the ice for Sarnia’s Teddy Bear Toss game.

But Dante Salituro gave the 67’s hope with a strong four-point performance, including three goals. He was also awarded third star of the game.

His third gave Ottawa their first lead of the game midway through the third period. With the help of Travis Konecny, Salituro found the back of the net on a 5-on-3 powerplay, giving the 67’s a 4-3 lead.

But the scoring outburst wasn’t enough to earn Ottawa a win.

About two and a half minutes after Salituro’s powerplay goal the Sting got their own 5-on-3 opportunity. Nikita Korostelev wasted no time, burying the puck past 67’s goalie Leo Lazarev 36 seconds later to tie the game at four.

Mistele, whose three-point night earned him first star, helped his team regain the lead with an assist on a Jakob Chychrun goal with just over four minutes remaining in the game.

Despite a late checking from behind penalty to Stepan Falkovsky, Konecny managed to steal the puck from the Sting and skated up the ice on a breakaway but Sarnia netminder Justin Fazio made a quick save, protecting his team’s 5-4 lead.

The 67’s currently sit in fifth place in the Eastern conference, with a record of 16-12-1. The next game will be played in Ottawa at TD Place arena on Wednesday, Dec 9 at 7:00pm.