Philadelphia Flyers' prospect's 'hat trick' leads Sarnia Sting to 6-0 shutout over the Saginaw Spirit

The Saginaw Spirit (13-15-3-2) dropped a 6-0 shutout to the Sarnia Sting in front of 3,247 anxious fans who had been waiting for the first goal in the annual Teddy Bear Toss game at the Dow Event Center tonight. 

 

Finally, with a few minutes left in the game it was announced for the fans to toss the Teddy Bears despite no goals from the Spirit. 

 

The Teddy Bears will be donated to the Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation. In years past, the Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation has in turn donated the Teddy Bears to the C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital on the campus of the University of Michigan for the holidays. For more information visit the Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation Facebook page or www.jaydenlamb.org 

 

The Sting, who were recently shutout by the Spirit 3-0 back on Dec. 8, are coached by former Detroit Red Wing/Sterling Heights native Derien Hatcher, who must have made some changes to his teams forecheck, as it was giving Saginaw and goal tender Evan Cormier (a fourth round pick of the New Jersey Devils in the 2016 NHL draft) fits all night. 

 

The biggest thorn in Cormier's side, however, was Sarnia forward Anthony Salinitri (a sixth round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2016 NHL draft) who scored back to back goals at 1:45 and 6:51 of the first period to get his team out to an early 2-0 lead. 

 

Ryan McGregor (10) followed with his tenth of the season at 13:31 of the first period to give Sarnia a comfortable 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission. 

 

Franco Sproviero (4) buried his fourth of the season for the only second period tally at 2:39 of the second period. 

 

Jordan Kyrou (second round pick of the St. Louis Blues in the 2016 NHL draft) made it a 5-0 game early in the third period with his twelfth of the season at 1:21 of the third period, and Salinitri followed with his hat trick goal just 49 seconds later at the 2:10 mark to round out the scoring. 

 

Sarnia goal tender Justin Fazio was stellar for the Sting in net, stopping all 32 Saginaw Spirit shots he would face tonight. 

 

Cormier, who made a ton of very tough saves while facing Sarnia's relentless pressure and a lot of point-blank opportunities, turned away 21 of the 27 shots he faced for the Spirit in between the pipes tonight. 

 

The Spirit will head into the holiday break nursing some injuries while trying to weather another 19 days without two of its best players in Mitchell Stephens (second round pick Tampa Bay Lightning 2016 NHL draft) and Filip Hronek (second round pick Detroit Red Wings 2016 NHL draft) who will be competing for their respective countries at the 2017 IIHF U20 World Junior Championships in Toronto and Montreal. They will next host the Windsor Spitfires Dec. 28 and Soo Greyhounds on Dec. 29 both games at the Dow Event Center.