The Sarnia Sting are one win away from sweeping the Guelph Storm following an 8-4 victory at the Sleeman Centre Tuesday night.
Sandis Vilmanis scored a pair of goals, six other Sting skaters had multi-point games, and goaltender Ben Gaudreau made 27 saves to help Sarnia improve to 3-0 in the opening round playoff series.
The Storm got off to a strong start with goals at 2:43 and 8:44 from Isaac Enright and Ben McFarlane. Vilmanis got Sarnia on the board at 14:41 and Guelph led 2-1 after 20 minutes.
The Sting tilted the ice in the second period, scoring five goals in under 10 minutes of ice time. Sasha Pastujov tied it at 1:27, Mitch Young scored his first OHL goal at 2:19, Nolan Burke made it 4-2 at 9:04, Easton Wainwright scored seven seconds later, and Vilmanis potted his second of the game at 11:19. Sarnia led 6-2 heading into the third period.
Storm forward Jake Karabela got the home side back in it with a short-handed goal less than a minute into the final frame. Matthew Poitras brought Guelph to within two goals at 5:01. Brendan Anderson restored Sarnia's three-goal lead at 12:44, and Christian Kyrou scored an empty net goal at 16:18 to seal the 8-4 win.
The Sting outshot the Storm 32-31, and both teams went a combined 0 for 9 with the man advantage. Guelph goaltender Brayden Gillespie was pulled from the game midway through the second period after allowing five goals on 18 shots.
Game four of the series goes Thursday night back in Guelph -- coverage on CHOK (103.9 FM/1070 AM) begins at 6:30 p.m.
