Goaltender Ben Gaudreau (San Jose Sharks) stopped all 22 shots he faced and five different players scored as the Sarnia Sting shut-out the Guelph Storm 5-0 in game one of the Western Conference Quarter-Final playoffs, Friday night, in front of a full house (4,401) at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Marcus Limpar-Lantz and Sandis Villmanis (Florida Panthers) led the way with a goal and an assist while Nolan Burke (Nashville Predators), Luca Del Bel Belluz (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Nolan Dillingham scored one goal each. Ty Voit (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Christian Kyrou (Dallas Stars) each had two assists. Lukas Fischer and Marko Sikic chipped in one assist apiece.
The shut-out was the first in the playoffs for Gaudreau and his second overall this season. For his effort he was named first star of the game. Gaudreau best save came with 9:21 left in the third period as he robbed Jesse Fishman point blank and the Sting fans stood and cheered in unison, while belting out his name, Bennie, Bennie and repeated that scenario after the game.
Sarnia led 3-0 after two periods and scored two third period power-play goals to put the game out of reach. In all the Sting went 2-6 with the man-advantage while stopping all six power-play chances for the Storm.
The Sting swept the three-star selections as Dillingham was voted as the third star, Burk the second star and Gaudreau the first start.
Sarnia out-shot Guelph in the game by a wide margin 37-22 and dominated in the face-off circle 37-21. The Sting now lead the series one game to none with the second game set for Sunday afternoon at the Hive with puck drop at 2:05.
Sarnia controlled the play in the first period scoring the only goal and out-shooting Guelph 13-5. The Sting seemed to open the scoring within the first four minutes from Pastujov, but the goal was disallowed due to goaltending interference. At 5:37, Sarnia made it count as Dillingham took a pass from Voit and scored on a wrist shot from inside the face-off scoring for what proved to be the winning goal. Voit and Kyrou were credited with the assist. Both teams went 0/1 on the power-play.
The Sting continued to dominate in the second period scoring twice. Burke broke in alone following a successful penalty kill by Sarnia. On the break-away, Burke scored on his back-hand, beating goaltender Patrick Leaver on the stick side unassisted at 6:31. Vilmanis set up the third goal coming up with the puck from the half wall and moving in on goal, he then managed to get the puck to Limpar-Lantz and he scored at 8:08. Vilmanis and Fischer both assisted on the goal. The period was filled with a number of minor penalties, three to the Sting and four to the Storm, but neither team could score with the man-advantage. For a second straight period Sarnia out-shot Guelph, this time by a 12-8 count.
By Carl Chimenti
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