The Sarnia Sting were beaten by the visiting Flint Firebirds 6-4 in a game of swings Friday night.
The Firebirds scored the first three goals of the game, the Sting responded with four straight goals in the second, but Flint answered back with another three straight to come out on top.
Firebirds forward Nathan Aspinall opened the scoring at 1:44, and Kaden Pitre made it 2-0 at 5:29. Flint's Ethan Hay added to that lead at 15:15, and the Firebirds led 3-0 after 20 minutes.
Sarnia's Ryan Brown got the home-side on the board at 4:27 of the middle frame. Just over three minutes later, Brown put home his second goal of the game, and third of the season, to make it a one-goal game.
The Sting's Tyson Doucette tied things at 3-3 at 12:54, and Zach Filak gave Sarnia its first lead of the game at 13:57. However the lead was short-lived -- former Sting Nolan Dann scored at 15:53 and the two teams were tied 4-4 heading into the third period.
Flint's Zacharie Giroux put his team back in front at 11:05 of the final frame, and Gavin Hayes put the game away with an empty net goal at 18:18. The Firebirds outshot the Sting 11 to 4 in the third period and 41 to 26 overall.
Sting netminder Nick Surzycia turned away 35 of the 40 shots he faced. It was his first start since Sarnia traded veteran goaltender Ben Gaudreau to Erie. For Flint, Jacob Brown made 22 saves.
The Sting are 3-3 in the early going. They'll look to get back in the win column Saturday night against the visiting London Knights -- puckdrop on CHOK (103.9 FM/1070 AM) goes after 7 p.m.
