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The Sarnia Sting is back to its winning habits.

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The work ethic and resilience that was sometimes lacking during a four-game skid was on display Saturday in a 5-3 win over the Brampton Steelheads.

“(The Steelheads are) a great team and they play hard and they play heavy and they pull you into the fight,” Sting head coach Alan Letang said. “Tonight we were ready to fight with them. We stood up and fought back. It’s important.

Despite missing their best defensive duo, the Sting recovered from an early two-goal deficit in front of 2,235 fans at the CAA Center. Jack Bodin was injured in Friday’s 5-2 loss at Oshawa and joined injured partner Lukas Fischer on the sidelines.

“It’s a big loss, but the guys stepped up today,” Letang said. “The penalty was huge for us. A lot of blocked shots, a lot of desperation, that’s what we missed in the last three games.

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“At the beginning of the season it was like that, and then we kind of got away from it. Tonight we folded a little bit, but we were at least aggressive and forced them to make some really good plays.

The Sting shouldn’t worry about whether they’re young, missing key players or playing a good team, he said. They proved they could take on anyone if they worked hard and stuck to the game plan.

This is how they eliminated the Steelheads, who were second in the Canadian Hockey League pre-season standings.

“We played physical, we skated, we passed pucks,” Letang said. “Guys were taking shots to make plays, guys were blocking shots.

“We have preached winning habits and we have 10 of them on our board of directors. We have to do all 10, night after night, for our group to succeed.

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Easton Wainwright leads the Sting (7-6-1-3) with eight goals after scoring twice. He also had a goal and an assist in Oshawa.

The Sting juggled its lines against the Steelheads (7-5-1-0), bringing together veterans Kaeden Johnston, Zach Filak and Tyson Doucette. Each scored as the trio totaled seven points.

“I thought maybe they could generate a little more for us, and they played well,” Letang said. “And then Wainer the whole year was kind of a one-man show, but he really carried his line. I thought him, Brownie (Ryan Brown) and Ruslan (Karimov) were good, they gave us a good second line.

“And then we had (Ryan) Chamberlain, Daylen (Moses) and Carter (Kostuch), and I thought they played well, too. And it was nice to have some energy from JJ (Franceschetti) in the lineup.

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“I thought for a young and inexperienced D corps, they kept it simple and played nice and hard.”

Franceschetti made his OHL regular season debut after being injured in an exhibition game. He quickly made his presence felt while fighting Adam Zidlicky.

Zidlicky and Carson Rehkopf scored to give it an early 2-0 lead. Johnston began the comeback late in the first period and Filak scored a tying goal 12 seconds into the middle period.

The Sting started the third period with back-to-back goals. Doucette scored at 3:44 and Wainwright followed at 9:07 in a two-man duel to score Sarnia’s first shorthanded goal of the season.

After Luke Misa scored for the Steelheads, Wainwright responded late.

Sting goalkeeper Nick Surzycia made 25 saves. Letang praised him for ignoring the first two goals.

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“He did a great job making the next save, staying confident and keeping the guys in it,” Letang said. “I thought we stuck with that too, and … we just stayed the course and kept playing.”

The Steelheads went 0-for-6 on the power play a night after the Generals were 3-for-9.

REMARKS : Wainwright and Moses scored Friday. Surzycia made 31 saves. … The Generals led 3-0 before the game lasted 13 minutes. They scored two goals at five against three. … Forward Chase Gaughan, a 2024 third-round pick, made his OHL debut Friday and played again Saturday after being called up by the Strathroy Rockets. … Forward Dylan Luecke missed both games. … The Sting continues its eight-game road series by visiting Owen Sound on Wednesday, Niagara on Friday and Erie on Sunday.

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