Spits take tough loss at home

by Evan Mathias

Remy Giftopoulos said it best.

“It’s the worst feeling you can imagine in sports.”

A turnover in their own end proved to be the demise of the Windsor Spitfires against the Sarnia Sting Feb. 15.

Sarnia forward Daniel Nikandrov scored to give his team a 2-1 lead with 12.3 seconds remaining in the third period.

“We’re tied up, we have to win and something like that happens it’s really frustrating,” said Giftopoulos.

Windsor and Sarnia played a scoreless first period with not many scoring chances on either side. Windsor was able to shut down the Sarnia offence for most of the game.

“We all had individual roles and mine was to shut down their top line with Brady Vail and Ben Johnson. We executed that pretty well tonight,” said Spits forward Alex Aleardi. “We laid it all on the line, we should have came out with two points.”

The Sting opened the scoring on a power play midway through the second period. Reid Boucher unloaded a one-timer that beat Windsor goalie Jaroslav Pavelka over his glove.

Windsor had a scare when Aleardi blocked a shot off of his knee in a shorthanded situation. Aleardi had trouble skating to the bench and immediately went to the dressing room.

“Total focus was on the game,” said Aleardi. “If the puck went back to that (defenceman) I was thinking the same thing, to put my body in front and block another shot.”

Giftopoulos tied the game on a power play following a passing play from Kerby Rychel and Alex Khokhlachev.

Windsor held the Sting to five shots in the third period and momentum seemed to be going in their direction until Pavelka’s clearing attempt went right to the tape of Sting forward Charles Sarault who picked up an assist on the game-winning goal.

“We could see the mesh move and it was just deflating,” said Spits defenceman Patrick Sanvido. “We were so close to getting at least one point.”

Windsor still has two games remaining this weekend, both against the Saginaw Spirit who hold the eighth playoff spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference.

“Probably the biggest two games of the year so far,” said Sanvido. “It kind of makes or breaks what we’ve done so far. We made all the trades so this is the weekend we need to play our best and this is the weekend we need to win both games.”