A year ago Trevor Letowski and Scott Walker were playing pro hockey, Letowski in Russia and Walker in the National Hockey League.

Today both are behind the bench as head coaches in the Ontario Hockey League. Letowski is with the Sarnia Sting and Walker the Guelph Storm.

The two teams clashed Thursday night and it was the Sting who scored four times in the third period to skate off with a 5-2 victory in front of 3,009 fans at the RBC Centre.

“We didn’t have any bets on the game, but we talked before hand,” said Letowski. “We are good friends as we spent two years playing together with the Carolina Hurricanes. We actually signed together as free agents after they won the Stanley Cup. We were the only two free agents they signed.”

He added, “They had all the Cup celebrations to start the season. We weren’t really involved so we became tight. He’s a great guy.”

Both coaches have lots in common. Both began the season as assistant coaches before Walker took over as head coach of Guelph in November while Letowski took over as interim head coach of the Sting in January.

Sarnia went into the game losers of five straight and allowed 28 goals in three games. So what was the difference against Guelph?

“We were all on the same page,” said Letowski. “We had a good work week. We told the players just to bear down, play as five man units and keep their shifts short. Lately our shifts were too long and we got tired and that got us into trouble. We had a lot of great efforts from different players tonight.”

Letowski said he was proud of his team’s performance.

“That’s a good hockey club over there even though they are tied for seventh in the Western Conference. They have a lot of high-end players who will be playing pro hockey next season. It was a big test and I’m proud of our guys in that we allowed only two power play goals.”

Sarnia was led by overage goalie Troy Passingham. He blocked 37 of 39 shots, including a breakaway and was named the game’s first star.

“He played great tonight,” said Letowski. “We challenged him all week. I think we’ve won four of five at home because of him. He was the difference maker tonight.”

The game was scoreless after one period even though Guelph had a 15-9 edge in shots on goal. The Storm had some glorious scoring opportunities, including a breakaway that was all turned aside by Passingham.

Guelph opened the scoring 35 seconds into period two with a two-man power play as Peter Holland snapped home a shot from the slot.

But Sarnia tied the game at 6:01 when Craig Hottot knocked in a rebound off a J.C. Campagna shot.

The score remained that way until the 4:31 mark of period three when the Sting took their first lead. Nail Yakupov took a pass from Alex Galchenyuk and snapped a wrist shot over the shoulder of goalie Brandon Foote.

Guelph tied the game at 8:55 on the power play when Taylor Beck scored on a backhand from close range.

But Yakupov put the Sting ahead to stay at 10:29 on the power play when he banged home a loose puck.

“Those two goals were for my mother,” said Yakupov. His parents were in attendance and his mother was visiting Canada for the first time ever.

“She was crying after I scored,” said Nail.

Yakupov has 47 goals, a team rookie record while he now has 91 points, one shy of the rookies points record set by Steven Stamkos.

Hottot scored his second of the game at 13th of the season at 12:26 on another play. Joe Rogalski’s high shot from the point hit the shaft of Hottot’s stick and went into the net. The force of the shot broke Hottot’s stick.

The save of the game was made by Passingham with just over four minutes left. Beck had the puck all alone in front of Passingham. But somehow a sprawling Passingham got his pad on the shot and kept the puck out of the net.

Tyler Peters completed the scoring at 18:25 when he scored into an open net for his 19th goal of the season.

Guelph held a 39-32 edge in shots on goal. Sarnia was two-for-seven on the power play and Guelph one-for-six.

Sarnia resumes action Friday night in Saginaw and travel to Windsor Sunday afternoon. Their final home game of the season is next Thursday against the Erie Otters beginning at 7:05 p.m. at the RBC Centre.

STING NOTES

- Passingham was first star with Yakupov second star and Hottot third star. Yakupov now has five game winning goals this season.

- Brett Ritchie was back in the Sting lineup after missing two weeks with a lower body injury. He picked up one assist.

- Galchenyuk and Campagna each had two assists.

- Sean Parker was the backup goalie for the Sting as Brandon Hope was serving a one-game suspension for his fight last Saturday against Niagara.

- The win was the first over Guelph in four tries this year by the Sting.

- Sarnia’s overall record is now 23-34-4-2 while their home record is 16-14-1-2.