The Sarnia Sting built up a 4-1 second period lead and then hung on to edge the London Knights 4-3, Thursday afternoon before 9,040 stunned fans at the John Labatt Centre.

The win snapped a six-game losing streak for the Sting in the Ontario Hockey League. It also marked the first win over London this season in three attempts.

The teams play three more times this season, including Saturday night at 7:35 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

"Anytime you win, it’s nice, but it’s always nice to come into a tough building like this and get two points," said Sting head coach Dave MacQueen.

"We were playing with a short bench and had a lot of young players playing in key situations. They were missing some guys too, but they still had a lot of firepower."

MacQueen added, "the key to the game was the fact we scored three goals early in the first period. That gave us some confidence. There’s no question we were hanging on late in the third period. But the big thing was we found a way to win."

London lost for only the second time in 19 home games this season. Sarnia scored four goals in a game for the first time in their last seven games. In the previous six, they had been averaging two per game.

"Scoring four goals made it a little easier on me," said Sting goalie, Shayne Campbell, who turned away 39 of 42 shots he faced. "When we’ve been averaging two goals a game like we have lately, it makes it tough on everybody. We came out strong early in the game and got the lead. The boys battled hard down the stretch."

Campbell won for the first time in exactly two months. His last victory came Oct. 31 in Belleville when the Sting won 4-2.

The Sting opened the scoring three minutes into the game when Kyle Neuber snapped a wrist shot from the slot past Knights goalie Michael Hutchinson. It was Neuber’s fourth goal of the year.

Sarnia went ahead 2-0 a minute and a half later when defenceman Anthony Donati scored his first goal of the season when his high shot from the right point eluded Hutchinson.

London got on the board at 6:12 when Phil Varone’s attempted centering pass went off the skate of a Sting defenceman and past Campbell.

But rookie Brandon Francisco restored Sarnia’s two-goal lead at 7:52 when he knocked in a rebound for his fifth of the year.

Francisco has now scored in back-to-back games since the Christmas break. He was named the game’s second star against London as he also picked up an assist.

"I’m trying to go harder to the net and move me feet more," said Francisco. "It’s nice to get second star and be able to help the team out. Winning tonight was very important to snap that losing streak. You start to lose some confidence when you are on a streak like that and there’s no better way to get out of that by winning in their building like tonight."

The third round pick of the Sting had a slow start to his OHL career in the opening half of the season.

"I’ve learned that playing defence is more important than offence. Once you learn the systems you can apply your skills and see what happens."

Coach MacQueen says being patient with young players like Francisco is so important.

"We always saw the offensive upset, but he needed to start competing harder and going to the danger zones. You aren’t going to score many goals in this league from the outside. If you look at his last two goals they have been scored from right in front of the net. It’s a good start for him in the second half. When he goes to the danger zone he can create offence."

Sarnia took a 4-1 lead 38 seconds into period two when Miroslav Preisinger took a nice feed from Brent Sullivan and chipped the puck over the goalie. It was his ninth goal and it turned out to be the game-winner, his third game-winner of the year.

London got that goal back before the period ended at 15:46 when Colin Martin poked home a loose puck at the side of the Sting goal.

London outshot Sarnia 14-4 in period three and applied the pressure. They pulled to within a goal with 1:33 remaining as Varone scored his second of the game.

The Knights pulled their goalie with over a minute remaining and forced Campbell to make a couple of big stops, including one shot that hit him in the throat.

"I didn’t see the shot coming from the point until the last second and it hit me right in the Adam’s apple. The last couple of minutes felt like a lifetime."

London finished with a 42-25 edge in shots on goal. Sarnia was zero-for-three on the power play and London zero-for-five.

Sarnia began the game under play under the limit of 20. Top scorer Kale Kerbashian was unable to play due to a slight concussion suffered Tuesday against Plymouth. Forward Craig Hottot, who was playing only in his second game after missing 19 with a broken jaw, played just one shift before leaving with stomach issues. Early in the third period Brett Appio crashed into the boards and hurt his ankle. He did not play anymore.

"It’s all about the process and moving forward. We got up 4-1 and then made three or four mental mistakes. But it’s mistakes that can be corrected," said MacQueen.

- Varone was first star with Francisco second star and London’s Jake Worrad third star.

- Sarnia improved their overall record to 14-23-1-1 and are now 7-12-0-1 on the road. They finished the month of December at 4-6-0-1.

- London lost for only the second time in nine games. The Knights played without Nazem Kadri and Phil McRae, who are both at the world juniors.