Ryan McGregor scored a goal and an assist but the Sarnia Sting fell to the Niagara IceDogs 4-3 Saturday night at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The Sting sit in third place in the OHL West Division with 45 points.
The first period was scoreless, with Niagara leading 7-6 in shots on goal. There was a single four-on-four situation in the frame.
The offence came alive for both sides in the second period. Jack Studnicka opened the scoring for Niagara with a power-play goal at 7:23. Sarnia then scored back-to-back for a 2-1 lead, thanks to goals from Jacob Perreault, on the power play, and one shorthanded from McGregor. The IceDogs then scored two of their own before the second interval. Ben Jones' power-play goal was the equalizer, then Kyen Sopa provided the go-ahead tally.
Jamieson Rees brought Sarnia closer with a goal early in the third period, but Philip Tomasino collected the game-winner for Niagara shortly after.
Sting captain Ryan McGregor said the IceDogs are a good team. "One of our focuses going into the game was dictating the pace which I think we did a good job of doing. At the end of the day specialty teams kind of killed us and it's a good power play to go up against. You can't give them so many chances."
Niagara was 2/4 on the power play.
Both power play goals for the IceDogs came in that 5-goal second period and changed the pace of the game according to McGregor.
"Penalty kills and power plays really changed the pace of the game but it didn't change the way we wanted it to but I think we got back to them in the third and overall I thought we played a pretty good game."
Ethan Langevin faced 27 shots in goal for the Sting and stopped 23 of them. Stephen Dhillon had 29 saves for the IceDogs.
The Sting will host the Hamilton Bulldogs Sunday night. The pregame show starts at at 6:35 p.m. on 103.9 FM - 1070 AM CHOK.
