By Carl Chimenti

An exciting end to Sarnia’s home finale, as the Sting held off a late Erie charge and beat the Otters 6-3, in front of a huge crowd of 4,132, Wednesday night, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.

With the win, Sarnia’s finishes off on a good ending, and a positive up-beat, going into next season at the Hive. Sarnia finished with a home record of 11-19-3-1, and now will travel on the road to both Kitchener on Friday night, and for the final game of the 2025-26 season, with a much anticipated rematch against the Saginaw Spirit on Saturday evening.

In the final home game the Sting took a 3-1 lead into the final twenty minutes, scoring three times to hold off the charging Otters.

Callum Hughes sliced the Sting lead to 3-2 at 9:32, but Sarnia retaliated as Ben Pickell scored an unassisted goal after a great individual play, stealing the puck away from an Erie player in the Otters end, and then whirled and beat Erie goaltender Noah Erliden (33 saves on 38 shots) at 13:39 for what proved to be the winning goal. It was Pickell 23rd goal of the season and he was selected as the first star.

Erie was not finished, and they pulled to within one goal at 16:12 on a Tyler Cooper power-play goal, playing six on four, with the extra attacker, after pulling Erlinden with just under five minutes to play. That was as close as Erie would come.

Sarnia went on to score an empty net goal at 18:49 from Tyler Challenger, his second of the game and his 10th of the season, against his former team, and Challenger was named the second star. Cameron Aucoin assisted on the goal, his second helper of the game.

Jacob Reese with a blast scored the final Sting home goal at 19:22, his fifth of the season, unassisted. Liam Beamish with his 11th of the year and Carson Hall with his 3rd also scored for the Sting. Beamish was awarded the third star.

Sting forward Logan Hawery had a big night with three helpers. Chase Gaughan and Matthew Manza contributed one assist each.

Sarnia out-shot Erie in each period, and overall 39-27. The Sting dominated in the face-off circle 40-22. Each team scored a power-play goal, as Erie finished one for four, and Sarnia one for three.

In goal Patrick Quinlan had a fantastic night, as he turned away 24 of the 27 shots he faced in tonight’s game.

Sarnia scored the only goal in the first period, even though Erie appeared to score first late in the period. The goal was immediately waved off, due to goaltending interference.

Shortly after the Sting scored an even strength goal at the 17:00 mark. Cameron Aucoin in an attempt to drive towards the net, had the puck deflected off his stick and Challenger jumped on the loose puck and he beat Erlinden on the stick side. Both Cameron Aucoin and Logan Hawery assisted on the goal.

Sarnia played a strong opening period as they out-shot Erie 13-9.

In a very exciting second period, which featured three fights, the Sting out-scored Erie 2-1 and out-shot the Otters 16-10.

A quick fight opened the period as Sarnia’s Brenner Lammens and Erie’s Kayden Edwards had the big crowd on their feet, with both players landing blows. Both players received a five minute major, and a game misconduct.

Tempers flared shortly after, and the Sting’s Ben Pickell and the Otter’s Lucas Ambrosio fought round two, with both players receiving fighting majors.

The third fight lead to the Sting scoring their second goal of the game. Sarnia’s Jacob Reese and Erie’s Jackson Schouten fought, with Schouten getting the instigator, two minute minor. The Sting took full advantage, as they scored a power-play goal with Beamish finding the back of the net, from the door-step, at 8:33. Gaughan and Hawery were credited with the helpers.

Erie broke the shut-out at 11:24 as a big hit in the Erie end lead to a two on one rush, with Luc Plante finishing off the scoring play from Tyler Cooper and Tristen Trevino.

The Sting struck one more time with a late goal at 18:41. It was a nice three way passing play that started with Manza feeding Hawery and Hawery dropping the puck back to Hall, and he made no mistake putting the puck past Erliden.