By Dan McCaffery

ST. THOMAS – The Sarnia Legionnaires dropped a 5-3 decision to the St. Thomas Stars on Sunday.

With the setback, the Legion crew saw its 10-game point streak brought to a sudden halt.

During that stretch the Sarnians collected 17 of a possible 20 points. In the process, they moved from ninth and last place in the Western Ontario Hockey Conference standings to sixth spot.

There are four games left in the regular schedule.

"We played well for two periods,” coach Dan Rose said afterward. “We played a really good two periods on the road. But it was our third game in four nights and a five-minute major in the third period killed us.”

The bench boss was referring to a checking-from- behind penalty assessed against Legionnaire rearguard P. J. Vandervaart.

Rose said he had no problem with the call because such penalties are needed to protect players from serious injury.

Reid Oliver opened the scoring for the Stars less than two minutes into the contest.

But Thomas Moxley got that one back for Sarnia about two minutes later with a seeing-eye goal that came from a sharp angle.

Rookie defenceman Jeff King gave the Legionnaires the only lead they would enjoy all night when he found the back of the net with a blast from the point at 6:32 of the period.

Scott Mitchell tied the game before the first frame was out.

There was no scoring in the second, although Sarnia missed a number of good chances, including one in which goalie Devin Golets robbed Josh Kestner with a great glove grab.

“We had a lot of scoring chances,” Rose said.

One of the best came when Jason Teschke rang a shot off the crossbar.

St. Thomas won the game in the third stanza, scoring three times, including one with the extra man.

Colin Mooney, Matt Tsioros and Martin Kudla were the marksmen for the Stars.

Derek D'Andrea deflected home a point shot from Brent Sauve to account for Sarnia's final goal.

St. Thomas outshot Sarnia 29-21, with Sean Parker taking the loss in the Legionnaire net.

Sarnia returns to action Thursday when it hosts the Chatham Maroons.