The Sarnia Sting, with several regulars out of the lineup, dropped a 5-2 decision to the London Knights Thursday night before a crowd of over 3,400 at the RBC Centre.
London jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period, scoring twice with the man advantage on penalties taken by Noah Bushnell.
Early in the second Sarnia got a power play goal of its own when overage forward Stephen Pierog one-timed home his sixth of the season on a perfect cross rink pass by Anthony DeAngelo. Daniel Nikandrov also picked up an assist.
The Knights would restore their two goal lead about three minutes later on a pretty play by Mitch Marner who was left unattended in front of the Sting goal.
Rookie Jordan Kyrou would pull the Sting back to within a goal at 3-2 after 40 minutes on a pretty individual effort for his fourth of the season.
London, however, would score two unanswered in the third period for the win.
The Sting played without Pavel Zacha and Vladislav Kodola who are away with their national junior teams, the Czech Republic and Belarus. Out of the lineup due to injury were Jakob Chychrun, Josh Chapman, Connor Schlichting, Hayden Hodgson and goaltender Taylor Dupuis. Dupuis is said to be day-to-day with what is believed to be a minor injury sustained in Sunday's shootout win over Sault Ste. Marie.
With Max Domi at Canada's national junior camp, the Knights were led by first star Christian Dvorak with two goals and two assists and Marner with a goal and an assist.
Justin Fazio got the start in goal for the Sting who were outshot by London 28-26.
The Sting (15-13-1-1) is right back at it in Kitchener Friday night and then returns home to host Peterborough Saturday night.
Listen to all the action on 103.9 FM, 1070 AM CHOK.