Troy Lajeunesse and Jordan Kyrou each scored twice as the Sarnia Sting held off the Saginaw Spirit 6-5 Sunday afternoon at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The win bumps Sarnia up to 54 points and third place in the OHL West Division, with the Spirit in last place at 46 points.
The first period was scoreless, though Sarnia had two power-play opportunities and Saginaw one. Drake Rymsha got Sarnia on the board first at 6:20 in the second period for his 19th goal of the season. Matthew Kreis and Kris Bennett then scored back-to-back goals to get Saginaw in front. Lajeunesse responded with not one, but two straight goals on the power play, the first at 15:49, the other 16 seconds later. Sarnia was not finished though, as Sean Josling collected his seventh goal of the year 65 seconds after the second Lajeunesse score to give the Sting a 4-2 lead.
It was almost the midway point of the third period when Bennett scored his second goal of the afternoon for Saginaw, pulling them within one. Kyrou got that goal back for the Sting at 10:47 in his first goal of the game. Brady Gilmour cut the Sting lead to 5-4 with a goal at 14:30, but Kyrou found the net again, on the power play, with a minute and 35 seconds left in regulation. Spirit goalie Evan Cormier was pulled for the extra attacker and Hayden Hodgson scored with 47 seconds left, but that was all they were able to do.
Cormier had 28 saves for Saginaw while Justin Fazio had 14 saves but left the game with an injury at the 14-minute mark of the second period. Aidan Hughes made 12 saves in relief.
The Sting begin a three-day, three-game stretch on Thursday with their first stop being North Bay to take on the Battalion.
