A huge third period did the Sarnia Sting in Saturday afternoon.
The Ottawa 67s scored five goals within the first half of the closing frame to beat the Sting 8-4 at TD Place in the nation's capital.
The Sting are in fourth place in the OHL West Division with 24 points following the loss to the 67s, who are the first-place team in the East Division.
The game started off encouraging, with Sean Josling putting the Sting on the board first at 1:04 in the opening period. Ottawa scored twice to take a 2-1 lead after one segment thanks to goals by Koty Clark, and Austin Keating's first of the contest.
Ottawa added to their lead with Tye Felhaber's 25th goal of the year at 2:12 of the middle period. Anthony Salinitri got that score back with a short-handed goal for Sarnia over four minutes later to cut the Sting deficit to 3-2.
After that, the wheels fell off for Sarnia. Merrick Rippon and Keating scored another pair for the 67s to extend their lead to 5-2 before Franco Sproviero found the net for the Sting. Goals were then scored by Ottawa's Sam Bitten, Clark and former Sting forward Sasha Chmelevski in order. Sarnia goalie Aidan Hughes was pulled for backup Ethan Langevin after Clark's second goal.
Hugo Leufvenius scored his 15th goal of the year for the Sting, but it was too little, too late.
Sarnia native, Sproviero, said the team let down in the final frame. "We had a really good first two periods I thought. I don't really know what happened in the first couple of minutes in the third but we kinda lost the game from then."
Hughes and Langevin combined for 33 saves in the losing effort for Sarnia. Will Cranley stopped 23 shots in goal for the 67s.
Ottawa improves to a league-leading 20-3-3-1 while Sarnia falls to 10-11-2-2.
There will be a quick turnaround for the Sting, as they try to bounce back on their eastern Ontario road swing Sunday afternoon when they visit the Oshawa Generals.
Sproviero said, "It's going to be a tough one. Obviously it's our third game game in our third night but we'll be ready to play. We need those two points and I think if we buckle down a little bit I think we'll come out very successful.
Gametime is 2:05 p.m. The pregame show starts at 1:40 p.m. on 103.9 FM - 1070 AM CHOK.
