The Sarnia Sting's three game win streak came to an end Monday afternoon with a 7-3 loss to the visiting Flint Firebirds.
Brennan Othmann opened the scoring for Flint at 0:47 of the first period, his 34th goal of the year, and Ethan Keppen made it 2-0 at 3:27. The Sting responded with two goals at 7:45 and 10:14 from Nolan DeGurse and Theo Hill, but Gavin Hayes put Flint back in front at 13:05 and the Firebirds led 3-2 after 20 minutes.
"I think our first period, besides spotting them the two goals early, we did do a lot of the things we wanted to do," said Sting head coach Alan Letang. "We had some success, we had them hemmed in and we created some scoring changes for ourselves. We just needed to stick with it, and we didn't."
Simon Slavicek and Ethan Hay increased Flint's lead to 5-2 by the 10:51 mark of the second period, and Keppen scored his second of the game at 17:32. Easton Wainwright scored Sarnia's final goal at 18:20, making it 6-3 Firebirds heading to the final frame. Sahil Panwar scored the lone goal in the third period, at 1:43, to make it 7-3.
"We're going to have off games," said Letang. "We got some guys that are tired, we've had some bodies that we've been short, guys have logged lots of minutes, but every team in our league goes through that now, that's the reality. We play 15, 16 games in March. You go on a deep run in the playoffs, you got to play every second night, you got to find ways to look after yourself and play."
Sting goaltender Ben Gaudreau made 12 saves on 18 shots in the loss and was replaced by backup Nicholas Surzycia early in the third period.
Letang said it was disappointing the group couldn't win one for Gaudreau when he had a bit of an off game.
"Goalies are going to have that, but he's been so good for us and we couldn't rally around him and get a win for him."
The Sting host the Firebirds again on Friday night -- coverage on CHOK (1070AM/103.9FM) begins at 6:30 p.m.
With files from Josh Boyce
