Game one in the Battle of the 402 goes to Sarnia.
The Sting erased a 4-2 deficit with four unanswered goals to beat the visiting London Knights, Wednesday night in front of 3,154 fans at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Easton Walos set up four goals while Alessandro Di Iorio marked his return from injury with a goal and an assist.
Jack Van Volsen, Jonas Gulbrandsen and Simon Katolicky each added a goal in the victory.
Logan Hawery provided the game-winner and an insurance marker with a pair of third-period power play tallies.
"Obviously it feels really good," said Hawery during a post-game media briefing. "I feel like I've been struggling to score recently so to get a couple tonight felt good. Power play was really good again tonight and I feel like we've just been really good recently."
Sarnia controlled play across the board, outshooting London 31-20 and winning 36 of 61 draws.
Netminder Ivan Tkach-Tkachenko made 16 saves on 20 shots to earn the win, snapping Sarnia's four-game skid and bringing their record to 6-6-1-0.
Former Sarnia Sting and newly appointed Knights Captain Ryan Brown stood out for London, earning third-star honours with a two-goal, three-point effort.
The two teams complete the back end of their home-and-home series on Friday night when the Sting travel to London to face the Knights at Canada Life Place.
You can catch the game live on Big Country 103.9FM with the puck drop at 7 p.m.
