The Sarnia Sting beat the North Bay Battalion 4-2 Thursday night in game one of a three-game road trip in northern Ontario.
Sasha Pastujov had a goal and an assist, Ethan Ritchie and Ty Voit each had two assists, and Sting goaltender Ben Gaudreau turned away 24 shots in the win.
Sarnia opened the scoring at 1:32 of the first period when Luca Del Bel Belluz converted on a two-on-one with Pastujov. Del Bel Belluz has 56 points on the season, including 15 points in 12 games with the Sting.
North Bay evened the score at 1-1 at 17:19 of the opening frame, but Pastujov and the Sting responded just over a minute later, a power play marker at 18:38, and Sarnia led 2-1 after 20 minutes.
The Sting took a two-goal lead a 1:16 of the second period when Marko Sikic's pass in front of the goal hit a Battalion defender and found the back of the net. At 6:51, Ryan Mast made it 4-1, his fourth goal of the season, when he fired one past North Bay netminder Dom DiVincentiis.
The home-side responded just over a minute later to make it 4-2 but that's as close as the Battalion would get. Gaudreau made 14 saves the rest of the way to improve to 16-11-2-1 on the season.
Sarnia has now won seven of their past eight games. The Sting will look to keep on rolling Friday night in Sudbury before wrapping up the week Sunday afternoon in Sault Ste. Marie.
Both games can be heard on CHOK (1070 AM/103.9 FM). Puck drop for Friday's game against Sudbury is at 7:05 p.m.
