Levi Harper scored the go-ahead goal with 59 seconds left, and the Saginaw Spirit beat the Sarnia Sting 7-4 on Saturday night before 2,866 fans at the Dow Event Center. Harper, who missed six games earlier this month with a lower-body injury, finished with two goals and two assists. Saginaw, which won 9-2 in Sarnia on Friday, improved to 6-2-2 for its fifth straight win. Sarnia fell to 5-6-1.
How the goals came
Ryan Hanrahan scored 42 seconds into the game, from Dima Zhilkin and Harper, and Dmitry Savin made it 2-0 at 12:24 of the first. Jack Van Volsen answered on a Sarnia power play at 14:51. Savin scored again 1:47 into the second, from Blake Barnes and Brody Pepoy, before the Sting tied it with two more power-play goals, from Matthew Manza at 6:58 and Easton Walos at 11:21.
Harper restored the lead with his first goal of the season at 19:01 of the second, from Tyler Martyniuk and Zhilkin. Jonas Gulbrandsen tied it 4-4 at 13:15 of the third. Harper then won it at 19:01, shooting from behind the right circle on a feed from Pepoy. Zhilkin scored into an empty net 24 seconds later, his 11th of the season and a goal in a sixth straight game, and Alex Milojevic added another empty-netter at 19:45.
In goal and on special teams
Stepan Shurygin made 27 saves for the win as Saginaw outshot Sarnia 34-31. Ivan Tkach-Tkachenko took the loss for the Sting. Sarnia went 3-for-5 on the power play, and Saginaw was 0-for-1. Logan Hawery had three assists for Sarnia. Savin scored twice for the Spirit, and Zhilkin finished with a goal and two assists.
What’s next
The Spirit host Owen Sound on Sunday evening, then meet the Flint Firebirds in the I-75 Divide Cup series on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7:05 p.m. in Saginaw and Saturday, Oct. 24, in Flint.
Watch
Watch: Spirit vs. Sting game video (Saginaw Spirit, CHL.ca)
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