Sean Josling had four points as the Sarnia Sting beat the Saginaw Spirit in a shootout 7-6 Monday afternoon at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
The Sting's win allowed them to stay one step ahead of the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL Western Conference standings with 55 points and the seventh playoff seed.
Sarnia got out to an early lead with back-to-back goals in the opening period, from Hugo Leufvenius and Ashton Reeser. The Spirit answered back to tie the game at 2-2 before the first intermission on goals by Brady Gilmour and Reagan O'Grady.
The Sting scored three goals to start the middle frame, with the first two coming from Franco Sproviero. Ryan McGregor added a short-handed goal soon after for a 5-2 Sting lead. The Spirit got one of those goals back before the end of the period with Jake Goldowski's tenth of the season.
Cole Perfetti and Blade Jenkins pulled even with Sarnia with goals that tied the game at five-all before the five-minute mark of the third period. Josling's goal at 11:00 put the Sting back in the lead but Justin Murray scored for Saginaw on the power play. That completed the scoring in regulation and forced overtime.
With overtime passing and the Spirit leading the shots 2-1 in the extra frame, the game was won by Sarnia in the shootout. Sproviero and Jacob Perreault each scored in the shootout while Perfetti scored the lone shootout goal for Saginaw.
Perreault's goal was the game clincher, sending a Family Day crowd of 4,406 home happy.
Ethan Langevin took the win in net for the Sting, while Ivan Prosvetov was charged with the loss for Saginaw, who outshot Sarnia 42-37.
There's a quick turnaround for the Sting, who will travel to Sault Ste. Marie Tuesday night to take on the Greyhounds.