The Belleville Bulls are finding out the hard way that they need a 60 minute effort if they are going to compete for wins this season.

The Bulls had a lacklustre start to Saturday’s home game and that gave the Sarnia Sting the opening they needed to scoop up a 4-2 win on the road.

Ben O’Quinn scored two goals for Sarnia, including a powerplay marker early in the second period for what proved to be the game-winner. He opened the scoring midway through the first period and then combined with Sting captain Jordan Hill to put in two goals in a three minute span early in the second period to give the Sting a lead that they never relinquished.

“I didn’t think that they had a lot of energy early in the hockey game and we certainly didn’t create any for ourselves and capitalize by putting pressure on them,” said Bulls’ GM/Coach George Burnett.

“It was kind of two teams not involved at all for the first 20-25 minutes and I thought they out-battled us in a number of areas on the ice and played patiently.”

Hill added to the lead with an unassisted marker just after leaving the penalty box early in the second period and then O’Quinn added his second of the game on a powerplay just over three minutes later.

Burnett elected to pull Philipp Grubauer from the Bulls’ net and was frustrated that his team didn’t have a better effort in front of Grubauer after his standout play on Friday paved the way for a shootout win over the Kingston Frontenacs.

“He absolutely stole one for us last night and for us to play with a lack of commitment or energy in front of him tonight is pretty disappointing,” Burnett said. “One of the reasons we went back with him tonight is we really felt strongly about his effort last night obviously but I really felt that our guys would be energized with him in there doing all he’s done for us throughout the year and particularly last night. We just didn’t have that jump that we needed to have.”

The Bulls rallied with a better performance late in the second period and had some good chances around the Sarnia net but came away empty handed. They continued that pressure in the third and scored two goals late in the period to cut the lead in half.

Burnett said that the Sting played an effective style to rebound after a 6-1 loss to the Saginaw Spirit on home ice last night.

“They played a good road game for a team that was coming off a big loss and they did what they needed to do tonight,” Burnett said.

Rookie Tyson Teichmann came on in relief of Grubauer in the second period and allowed one goal – a third period marker by Jesse Stoughton.

Bulls’ rookie Braden Corbeth broke Shayne Campbell’s shutout bid when he scored his first OHL goal with just under five minutes left in the game. Defenceman Julian Luciani also scored his first career goal on a powerplay with 11 seconds to go to cut the lead in half.

“It felt pretty good,” Luciani said. ” But with the way we played, it was nothing to feel good about at all.

Steven Silas, Andy Bathgate and Steven Strong picked up assists in the loss.

“We’re still a little fragmented and a little tentative,” Burnett said. “It was nice to see a couple of young guys get their first goals tonight. Maybe that will relax them a little bit. We’re still not playing as a team and sticking to the system and paying the price enough to win consistently. But we’re not far away.”

The Bulls were missing all-star defenceman Shawn Lalonde, who missed his sixth game with a shoulder injury, while veteran forward Stephen Johnston was also out of the lineup after crashing heavily into the boards in the Bulls’ shootout win over the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday.

The Bulls were one-for-five on the powerplay while Sarnia scored one powerplay goal on three chances. The Bulls outshot Sarnia 34-30.

The Bulls (5-11-1-0) are right back in action on Sunday when they travel to Oshawa for an East Division match-up against the Generals (7-7-2-0). Game time is 6:00 p.m. on TV Cogeco and AM 800 CJBQ.

“I guess the good thing about it is that we have the chance to get back at a divisional opponent tomorrow and finish the weekend on a good note,” Burnett said. “We haven’t had many four point weekends so here’s an opportunity for us. It will be a tough task because Oshawa is coming off a big loss last night in London and will probably be a little fresher.”

Former Bulls’ captain Darren McCarty was in attendance and dropped the puck before the game.

Game Sheet

Photo: Aaron Bell/QuinteHockey.ca

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