The Sarnia Sting used their offence to ice the visiting London Knights Saturday afternoon before a national Sportsnet TV audience.
Sarnia scored five unanswered goals in a 5-1 win before a crowd of 4,448 appreciative fans at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
With the win, the Sting became the second team in the OHL to secure a playoff spot, but Sarnia forward Franco Sproviero, who had three assists, says they don't want to look too far ahead.
"We want to keep playing our game. We haven't lost a game in regulation since the trade deadline, so I think that's a big building block and we just gotta keep it going."
The Sting now have 76 points in the OHL West Division, 11 behind the leading Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Knights have 56 points and are a distant second in the Midwest Division.
London started off with a shorthanded goal by Alex Formenton in the middle of the first period. It was his 17th score of the season. The Sting responded before the first intermission when Drake Rymsha found the net for the 24th time this year.
Sarnia broke it open in the middle frame with three straight goals. Anthony Salinitri broke the tie at 11:19 in the period. Adam Ruzicka and Sean Josling added goals of their own to extend the Sting's second-intermission lead to 4-1.
The Sting added one more goal in the third period from Hugo Leufvenius.
Justin Fazio was the winner between the pipes for Sarnia, stopping all but one of London's 24 shots. Knights goaltender Joseph Raaymakers was pulled after the second period and replaced with Jordan Kooy. Together they had 25 saves.
Both teams are back in action Friday night. The Sting visit Kitchener while the Knights host Erie.
The Memorial Cup was on display at the rink as part of the 100th anniversary tour.
