Frontenacs buzzing in win over Sting

Struggling Pobezal and Hopkins scored early goals for Kingston.

The Kingston Frontenacs took advantage of some mistakes made by the Sarnia Sting, both on the ice and on paper.

The Frontenacs started strong and finished with a 5-2 on Sunday in front of 2,590 in attendance at Slush Puppie Place. It's their third win in the last four and fourth straight game with at least a point.

The Sting were about to go on the power play 1:21 into the game when the team also received a minor penalty. Sarnia put out players at the start of the game that were different from the announced lineup resulting in a 4-on-4. 

Two more Kingston players that were struggling to score goals managed to put their names on the scoresheet early in the first period. 

Tomas Pobezal, who had just one goal in the previous 7 games, opened the scoring 5 minutes into the game for his 6th of the season. Then Tyler Hopkins scored his 8th of the season, his second goal in the last nine, 42 seconds later for a 2-0 Frontenacs lead.

Andrew Kuzma scored his 7th on the power play early in the second period, his second goal in as many games, put the Frontenacs (9-9-0-2) up 3-0 on the Sting.

Head coach Troy Mann was impressed with the way the team played right from the start.

Up 3-1 in the third, Jacob Battaglia knocked in this 10th of the season for a 4-1 Kingston lead.

The Frontenacs' captain believes things are starting to turn around in the team's favour.

Battaglia says there were a number of factors that led to some of the team's early struggles.

Sarnia did battle back with goals in the second and third periods, the later occurred 10 seconds after Kingston's 4th goal.

The Sting (6-11-3-1) were playing their first game since the firing of head coach Alan Letang on Saturday. General Manager Dylan Seca assumed head coaching duties in Sunday's game.

Something as drastic as a coaching change would normally provide a spark to a team and Mann feels the Sting showed some life in the second half of the game.

It was another outstanding outing for Fronts' netminder Matthew Minchak who stopped 25 shots for his fifth win on the season. Evan Maillet made 25 saves for the Sting.

Power plays saw Kingston go 1-for-2, Sarnia did not score in their only opportunity.

The next game for the Frontenacs is this Wednesday against the Ottawa 67's at Slush Puppie Place with a 10:30 am start time.

You can always catch the game on Upper Canada Fuel and Burner Frontenacs Hockey on New Country 98.9 with Jim Gilchrist on the call.

Story by Ken Hashizume