“We need to generate some scoring opportunities.”

In a nutshell, that’s how Sarnia Sting head coach Dave MacQueen gives his team a chance to beat the Saginaw Spirit.

The Sting and Spirit meet for the third time this season tonight at the RBC Centre in Ontario Hockey League action.

Game time is 7:35 p.m.

Sarnia is 0-2 against this season. The two clubs met last Friday in Sarnia with the Spirit skating off with a convincing 6-1 victory. Saginaw also won the first meeting 3-1 in Saginaw.

“In our last meeting, even though we allowed six goals, we didn’t play that bad defensively,” said MacQueen. “But we had little or no offence at all. We didn‘t crash the net and we didn’t get many pucks to the net. We need to have more urgency from the red line in. We’ve played them twice so far this year and have only two goals.”
 

MacQueen says Saginaw is a tough team to play against.

“They are extremely hard-working with decent size and play a physical game. They get quality goaltending and also have skilled forwards who know what to do and don’t take any shortcuts.”
 

One of the recent woes for the Sting of late has been their power play. In their last three games, Sarnia has just one power play goal in 21 attempts. They were zero-for-nine against Saginaw last Friday and zero-for-nine against Kitchener on Sunday in a 4-1 loss.
 

“Our power play has to be better. Lately there has been no continuity on our power play. We seem to be standing still with and without the puck. We try to create something that isn’t there. Maybe we need a couple of ugly goals to get our confidence back.”
 

He added, “Early in the year when we were struggling five-on-five, our power play was our bread and butter. It needs to get to that so teams don’t want to take penalties against us.”
 

MacQueen reduced the Sting roster to 21 players this week by moving two players.

Overager Steve Reese was dealt to Sudbury for a pair of draft picks while Wednesday MacQueen announced that European Ted Brithen of Sweden was going home.
 

Brithen had appeared in nine games this season with one goal and two assists. He has been a healthy scratch in four of the last five games.
 

“Ted and I talked this week and we went over a few things. He wants to play and prefers to go back to Sweden and play on the team he was with last season.”
 

MacQueen said Brithen was not comfortable playing in North America.
 

“Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him. He said the North American game, the rink size and style of play was something he wasn’t used to. As a last year player in our league, both sides knew he should be playing on one of our top two lines and that wasn’t happening. 
 

“The bottom line for us is we have made a commitment to play our young guys and we aren’t going to have an older player like Ted on the fourth line.”
 

In moving Reese, MacQueen got down to the limit of three overagers in Adam Courchaine, Jordan Hill and Kyle Neuber.

“I talked to the team this week and they realized the situation we were in. Steve was also very good about it. He is moving to a team where he gets a chance to play on their top two lines and to play with John McFarland. The Eastern Conference is wide open and Sudbury is right in the mix.”
 

Reese scored a goal and an assist in his first game with the Wolves on Tuesday as Sudbury edged Kingston 4-3. Reese is replacing another ex-Sting player, Daniel Lombardi, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon and could be lost for the season.
 

MacQueen added, “I hate to trade good people and Steve is that. He is a quality individual, a character player and one of my favorites to coach. But at the end of the day we have to stick to what we are trying to do here and with that in mind we felt it was a good deal for us.”
 

Reese was an eighth-round pick for the Sting in 2005. In return Sarnia will get a seventh round pick in 2010 and a fourth rounder in 2011 from the Wolves.
 

As for more deals, MacQueen said, “we are always looking to do something and I expect to do that. But we are not going to give up anything for the short term. We are looking long term.”
 

Sarnia will be without two regulars for tonight’s game. Forward Zack MacQueen serves the second of a two-game suspension while defenceman Daniel Broussard begins a five-game suspension for making an ethnic slur against one of Kitchener’s European players in Sunday’s 4-1 loss.
 

Sarnia is currently eighth in the Western Conference with a 9-7-1-0 record while Saginaw is fourth with a 10-4-2-0 mark.
 

The Sting play Friday night in Plymouth while they return home Sunday afternoon to battle the Ottawa 67s beginning at 2 p.m. at the RBC Centre.