The Sarnia Sting beat the visiting London Knights 5-3 on Saturday night at Progressive Auto Sales Arena in the first Battle of the 402 of the OHL season.
The Hive was packed, with a recorded attendance of 4,341.
The Sting's win puts them above the .500 mark at 4-3-0-0, good for second in the West Division standings. The Knights lead the Midwest Division at 5-2-0-1.
After a scoreless first period, the Sting scored twice in the second to jump out to a 2-0 lead on goals off the sticks of Roman Kukumberg and Sandis Vilmanis.
London's Denver Barkey scored his first of three goals on the night to cut Sarnia's lead in half with under two minutes to go in the period, but Mitch Young countered just 23 seconds later to pull the Sting ahead 3-1.
Tyson Doucette extended the Sting's lead to 4-1 in the third before Barkey made things interesting with a pair of goals to complete the hat trick. Sting captain Cooper Way iced the game with an insurance goal with just over five minutes remaining in the game to cap off the 5-3 victory.
Nick Surzycia made 29 saves in the Sting crease while London goalie Michael Simpson allowed five goals on 33 shots faced.
Vilmanis also had two assists on the night and leads the Sting with 10 points (one goal and nine assists).
The Knights' Denver Barkey now has 13 points on the season (seven goals and six assists), which is tied for first in the OHL with the Soo's Jack Beck.
The Sting will embark on a three game road trip this coming weekend.
They head to Niagara on Friday, October 20, Erie on Saturday October 21, and Kitchener on Tuesday, October 24.
You can hear every game live on 103.9 FM and 1070 AM CHOK.
