Sting forward Marko Sikic scored a hat-trick and added an assist in Sarnia's 7-4 win over the visiting Soo Greyhounds Friday night.
Defenceman Jacob LeBlanc had three assists for the home side, former Greyhound Daylen Moses scored twice against his old club, and Sting goaltender Ben Gaudreau made 19 saves in his first start of the season.
Sikic opened up the scoring just 37 seconds into the game on a pass from LeBlanc. Sarnia's Roman Kikumberg made it 2-0 at 7:34, and Sikic added another goal at 13:17 to give the Sting a three-goal lead.
The Soo's Christopher Brown responded less than a minute later to cut the lead to 3-1, and at 15:55, Greyhound winger Jordan D'Intino put home a power play goal to make it 3-2. Sarnia's Mitch Young scored a power play goal with just 15 seconds left in the opening frame to give the Sting a lead 4-2 after 20 minutes.
Moses scored his first of two goals at 8:03 of the second period. At 14:39, Sikic capped-off his hat-trick to make it 6-2 Sarnia after two periods of play.
The Greyhounds got back within three goals when Arttu Karki scored at 3:39 of the third period but that's as close as they would get -- Moses scored his second of the night, unassisted, at 10:47 to put the game out of reach. The Soo's Andrew Gibson scored a power play goal with one minute left to make the final 7-4.
With the win, Sarnia is now 2-2 through their first four games. The loss drops the Greyhounds to 3-1 in the early going.
The Sting are back on the ice in Windsor Saturday afternoon. Puck drop on CHOK (103.9 FM/1070 AM) gets going after 4 p.m.
