LONDON – The Sarnia Sting dug themselves a deep hole they couldn’t climb out of against the London Knights Wednesday night.

Despite a furious third period comeback the Sting dropped a 4-3 decision to the Knights before 8,826 fans at the John Labatt Centre in Ontario Hockey League play.

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” said Sting head coach Dave MacQueen. “We took some lazy, undisciplined, stupid penalties and you just can’t do that against a good team like London. You get down 4-0 and it’s a tough road to battle.”

London had 10 power play chances compared to just four for Sarnia. The Knights scored a pair of power play goals, including what turned out to be the winning goal.

Unlike last Saturday’s 4-3 London win in a shootout after a see-saw battle, the Knights jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period and held what appeared to be a commanding 4-0 after 40 minutes before the Sting rattled off three unanswered goals in the third to make it interesting.

MacQueen added, “we got a little life in the third period, didn’t quit and made a game of it.”

Sarnia was outshot 38-28, but the Sting had a number of quality scoring chances, especially in the first period, but were turned back by Knights goalie Michael Hutchinson.

“We had four or five real good chances in the first period,” said MacQueen. “Their goalie kept them in the game until they got untracked. But whether the penalties wee warranted or not we gave the officials the opportunity to make calls and they did. You just can’t do that.”

The Knights peppered Sting goalie Shayne Campbell with 23 shots in the opening period and were rewarded with a 2-0 lead.
Michael McDonald scored the first goal on a power play at 3:33 awhile Jared Knight scored from close range at 16:47. London scored a third goal just as time had expired.

Sarnia’s best chance came 11 minutes into the period when Kyle Neuber was in alone on a breakaway, but Hutchinson stopped his low backhand.

London scored two more goals in the second period. Steve Tarasuk had on an open net on a cross-ice pass from Nazim Kadri at 2:12 while Scott Harrington scored a power play goal at 15:16.

The Sting finally got on the board with just under 10 minutes to play when Jesse Stoughton had an open net to bang home a pass out from Miroslav Preisinger. The goal was Stoughton’s 13th of the year and third in the past two games.

Zack MacQueen cut the lead to 4-2 at 14:25 with his 10th goal of the year as backhanded the puck into the top corner from close range.

With 26.9 seconds left, Sarnia scored a shorthanded goal as Nathan Chiarlitti notched his sixth of the year as he had an open corner after a nice pass from Kale Kerbashian.

Sarnia did the puck into the London end in the dying seconds, but failed to get a shot on goal.

“We had lots of chances,” said Chiarlitti. “But we took too many penalties and that took away any momentum we had.”
He added, “it’s not that tough to play hard these last few games. There’s guys playing for spots next year and no one is going to shut it down.”

The Sting will play their final two games of the season at the RBC Centre. They host the Guelph Storm on Thursday and the Windsor Spitfires on Saturday night. Both games begin at 7:35 p.m.


- Stoughton also had an assist to go with his goal. Kadri had three assists for the Knights.
-  Kerbashian was back in the Sting lineup after missing three games due to a death in the family. Scratches included Ben O’Quinn, Brent Sullivan and Anthony Donati, all out with injuries.
- Ex-Sting Steven Stamkos has been on a tear lately with Tampa Bay Lightning in the National Hockey League. Stamkos scored his 41st goal of the season on Tuesday night in a 5-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
- Stamkos, who is in just his second season with Tampa Bay, needs nine goals in his final 16 games to reach the 50-goal plateau. If he does, Stamkos will become the third youngest player to score 50 goals in one year. The two youngest ever are Wayne Gretzky (19 years two months) and Jimmy Carson (19 years eight month). Stamkos turned 20 last month. This would have been is fourth year in the OHL and could have come back for a fifth year as an overager.
Stamkos is currently third in goals scored with 41 and sixth in league scoring with 78 points.
- London won five of six games with the Sting this season.
- The Sting will honour associate coach Greg Walters in special pre-game ceremonies on Saturday night. Walters is leaving the Sting after eight years behind the bench as he is returning to Toronto with his family.
- The Sting will finish this season with a 7-23-2-1 record on the road.