April 10, 2023 at 7:03 am
Sarnia Sting will head to the second round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs after a 4-3 overtime win at Guelph on Sunday afternoon.
Nolan Burke takes home overtime winner, Sasha Pastujov scores twice against his old team, Sting nets Ben Gaudreau made 16 saves to give Sagna a first-round matchup in six games.
Guelph’s Matthew Poitras opened the scoring at 15:51 of the first quarter and the Storm took a 1-0 lead 20 minutes later.
At 7 minutes and 36 seconds of the middle game, Pastuyov made a layup and tied the score at 1-1.
Former Sting Max Namestnikov responded with a powerful goal at 9:30, his fourth goal of the series to lead the team.
Sarnia’s Ty Voit scored his first goal of the series at 14:56 to make it 2-2 going into the third quarter.
The score continued when Charlie Paquette gave the Storm a third lead by one at 4:48.
Two-and-a-half minutes later, Pastuyov tied the game 3-3, his third goal of the series and second of the game.
Neither team scored in the final 12:41 of the third quarter, meaning overtime was required for the second time in the series.
Burke, who scored the overtime winner for Sarnia in Game 2, repeated it with a wraparound goal at 4:05 to send the Stings into the Western Conference semifinals. Burke led Sarnia with 50 goals during the regular season, scoring a team-high four goals in the first-round series.
The Stings outscored the Storm 4-0 in overtime and 10-3 in the third quarter for a total score of 32-19.
Sarnia will host the Saginaw Spirit of the Flint Firebirds in the second round.
Saginaw hosts Flint in Game 7 of the series on Monday night.