The Sarnia Sting fought back but still came up short in a 6-5 shootout loss to the visiting Guelph Storm Wednesday night.
Nolan Burke scored a hat trick in the loss, Sandis Vilmanis added a goal and an assist, and Ty Voit, the OHL's leading scorer, had four assists.
After the Sting opened the scoring at 7:59 of the first period, the Storm responded with four unanswered goals to lead 4-1 early in the second.
Vilmanis and Burke scored power play goals in the middle frame to cut Guelph's lead to one heading to the third period.
The Storm regained a two-goal early in the final frame to make it 5-3.
With under three minutes to play, Sarnia's Cooper Way scored his first goal as a Sting since being acquired last month. On the ensuing faceoff, just 15 seconds later, Burke would complete his hat trick and tie the game at fives, forcing overtime.
The Sting outshot the Storm 3-0 in the extra period and 31-22 overall. Guelph's Sasha Pastujov scored the lone goal in the shootout.
Voit said while it was a disappointing loss, there is some good to take from it.
"It was 4-1 at one point, 5-3 at one point, so we have to look at the positives. It was just great the way the guys battled back, especially some of the goals, it just showed our intensity, it just showed we picked up the intensity a little bit."
Sting goaltender Ben Gaudreau was pulled early in the second period after allowing four goals on 12 shots. Nicholas Surzycia made nine saves on 10 shots in relief of Gaudreau.
Burke, who leads the OHL with 11 goals this season, said it's vital that all four lines play their part.
"Especially if you want to be a contender, all four lines have to be going. I know they have been a lot this year -- the one game, me and Voit had zero points, the other lines came up with six and we won. So it's going to be big if we want to be one of those teams that goes deep in the playoffs."
The Sting are 7-4-1 through their first 13 games and are tied for third in the OHL's Western Conference.
Sarnia is in Windsor Thursday night to face the Spitfires -- coverage on CHOK (1070 A.M/103.9 F.M) begins after 6:30 p.m.
-With files from Stephanie Chaves
