By DAVE BORODY
special to

WINDSOR – Sarnia Sting head coach Dave MacQueen says Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner is always good at his house.

“The turkey always tastes good, but this year it’s going to be a pretty good day in the MacQueen household.”
 

That’s because  the coach watched his team score a dramatic 6-5 victory over the defending Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires, Sunday afternoon before 5,555 shocked fans at the Windsor Family Credit Union Centre.
 

The win was the second in  a row for the Sting who improved their overall record to 3-4-1-0 in the Ontario Hockey League. The Spitfires lost for only the third time in 10 games.
 

What is extra special for the MacQueen household is the fact rookie Zack MacQueen scored two goals against Windsor giving him a team-high five for the year. The five goals have come in the last four games. He was named the game’s first star.
 

“If you would have said at the beginning of the year I would have five goals at this point, I would have been hard-pressed to agree with it,” said MacQueen, a 15^th round draft pick two years ago.
 

“I’ve been working hard and in the right place at the right time. The puck seems to be coming to me and I’m finding the net.”

The young MacQueen added, “it was exciting to play today against a top-ranked team like Windsor. We battled hard and the team really wanted it. It was a good effort by everybody and we got the two points.”
 

There were plenty of story lines to the game.

Sarnia was again short six regulars due to injuries and suspensions. They began the game with just five defencemen, one of them being rookie Anton Zupancic. But he took a hard check early in the first period and did not return with a rib injury.
 

That left just four defencemen, Jordan Hill, Brent Sullivan, Joe Rogalski and Nathan Chiarlitti, who played despite feeling under the weather, including nose bleeds. All four logged at least 30 minutes of ice time each.
 

“It was a battle,” said Hill, when asked about playing with only four defencemen, “It was even tougher when one of the defencemen took a penalty and we were down to just three. Add to that Nathan was not 100 per cent, but kept battling out there. Playing with four defencemen keeps you in the game, that’s four sure.”
 

Hill added, “it was one of those games where momentum meant so much. We had it for another, they took it back and they regained it again. We again did the little things right and found a way to get the two points.”
 

Rogalski finished with three assists and now leads the Sting in scoring with one goal and eight assists for nine points.

Goalie Shayne Campbell put forth his best performance of the season as he was peppered with 46 shots, 20 of them in the third period. Campbell made a number of solid saves throughout the game. Sarnia fired 27 shots at Troy Passingham.
 

Ben O’Quinn scored the game-winner for Sarnia, his fourth of the year with 48.9 seconds remaining in regulation time to snap a 5-5 tie.

“I saw Jesse Stoughton was going to take a shot from the left wing,” said O’Quinn, when asked to describe the game-winner. “Both Steve Reese and  I drove to the net.  The defenceman  went to Reese leaving me wide open. The puck came off the goalie right to me and I  didn’t hesitate and put the puck in the top corner.”
 

O’Quinn added, “it was a good game. We came out a big flat in the first period, but picked it up after that. Our goaltending was great, our penalty-killing was pretty good and we battled hard to get two points.”
 

Brett Ritchie, Tyler Peters and overager Kyle Neuber, with his first in a Sting uniform, scored the other Sarnia goals. Stoughton chipped in with two assists.
 

Taylor Hall, Adam Henrique, Greg Nemisz, Ryan Baldwin and Eric Wellwood scored for Windsor.

Windsor held a 1-0 lead after the first period before exploded for four goals in the second period to taking a 4-2 advantage going to the third period.

The Spitfires scored twice early in the third period to tie the game at 4-4. Peters put Sarnia ahead 5-4 at 10:10 on a breakaway goal only to have Windsor tie the game at 18:31 with their goalie on the bench for an extra attacker.
 

But the Sting regained the lead for good on O’Quinn’s goal and then held on for the victory.

“Gutsy,” was the first word coach MacQueen used to describe his team’s performance. “We battled hard. Let’s not kid ourselves. We are not a top 10 ranked team in the country like Windsor is. But anytime you can come in here and get two points, it’s special. We did a lot of good things again today and kept it simple.”
 

MacQueen said the second period was key.

“We scored four times and the guys were alive on the bench. Half the battle with a young team is keeping their confidence level up and scoring those goals did that.”

(Sarnia scored six times in the second period of their previous game with Belleville).
 

MacQueen added, “Soupy (Shayne Campbell) made some big saves today and that was a big difference. A lot of credit has to go to the four guys who played defence. Windsor can come at you in waves. They had us back on our heels in the third period, but we didn’t quit. We were also able to capitalize on our scoring chances.”
 

The Sting now get set for a stretch of the season where they will be play three games in three nights over three consecutive weekends. This week they host the Barrie Colts on Thursday, play at Kitchener Friday and return home to face the Kingston Frontenacs on Saturday night. Both home games begin at 7:35 p.m. at the RBC Centre.
 

• MacQueen  was first star, Peters, who also had an assist to go along with his third goal of the year, was second star and Windsor’s Henrique third star.

• Sarnia finished three-for-eight on the power play and Windsor one-for-five. At one point in the second period, Windsor took six consecutive minor penalties.

• Windsor was missing all-star defenceman Ryan Ellis who suffered a wrist injury against London. Windsor lost in regulation time at home for the first time this year in four games.

• Ex-Sting captain, Ryan Wilson, (who is from Windsor), was called up by the Colorado Avalanche Sunday and is expected to play today in Boston against the Bruins.

• Sarnia now ranks fifth in the league on the power play.