It was a wild one at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena Friday night as the Saginaw Spirit outscored the Sarnia Sting 11-8 and moved into a first place tie with the Flint Firebirds in the OHL West Division.
The nearly 20 goals, however, were dwarfed by the 4,010 stuffed toys that the 4,170 fans threw on the ice at 6:03 of the first period when Sean Josling scored the 2019 Teddy Bear Toss goal on a clean face-off win by Captain Ryan McGregor.
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— CHOK News Sarnia (@BlackburnSarnia) December 7, 2019
Over 22 years more than 67,000 stuffed toys have now been collected for local charities including the Salvation Army, St. Clair Child and Youth, and Pathway’s Health Centre for Children.
Sean Josling scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal Dec. 6, 2019 (Photo courtesy of Metcalfe Photography)
As far as the hockey went, Associate Coach David Legwand said his team's compete level wasn't good enough.
"We didn't win any battles, one-on-one battles. Our compete level wasn't high enough and obviously the goaltending on both sides wasn't good tonight either. You add all that together and you get a lot of goals and a lot of mistakes out there."
Sarnia led 4-2 early in the second period.
"We let them back in the game. We didn't put our foot down and really go after them at that point and they kind of got back in the game and we didn't respond very well to that."
The score was 6-4 Saginaw after the second period.
"If we could ever get that next one there it would have been huge but it didn't happen so we've got to move on. We've got another game tomorrow...and a chance to regroup and go back at it."
Jacob Perreault scored twice for the Sting, his first on the power play, with singles going to Sean Josling, Jamieson Rees (short handed), Brayden Guy (power play), Ryan Roth, Theo Hill and Justin Nolet. Ryan McGregor contributed with two assists.
Cole Perfetti and Damien Giroux led the way for Saginaw with two goals each in the Spirit's franchise record 11 goal outburst. Dalton Duhart, Danny Katic, Danil Antropov, Sebastein Bulovs, Cole Coskey, Mitchell Smith and DJ Busdeker also tallied for the Spirit.
Ethan Langevin allowed six goals on 28 shots and Benjamin Gaudreau made 15 saves on 20 shots.
The Spirit also used two goalies with Tristan Lennox stopping seven of 11 shots while Marshall Frappier allowed four goals on 16 shots.
Sarnia visits the Niagara IceDogs Saturday night. The pregame show starts at 6:35 p.m. on 103.9 FM - 1070 AM CHOK.
-With files from Dave Dentinger