Reid Boucher is now looking down at Steven Stamkos in the Sarnia Sting record books.

Boucher had a hat trick en route to an 8-7 win for the Sting Saturday night in Saginaw against the Spirit, giving him 60 on the season and eclipsing Stamkos’ Sting record of 58.

Boucher tallied three times in the second period, including one with eight seconds left in the frame that was originally awarded to Bryan Moore, as the Sting surged with six goals in the period to come from behind against Saginaw.

Craig Duininck opened the scoring for the Sting with a power play goal 2:12 into the game, but from there, the Spirit took leads of 2-1, 3-2 and 5-3.

Sarnia got going again with seven minutes left in the second, scoring five times before the end of the frame to carry an 8-5 lead into the dressing room.

Jimmy Lodge scored his second of the game in the third, and Gregg Sutch added one more for Saginaw to get them close, but the Sting managed to hold on for the victory.

Nikolay Goldobin, Alex Carnevale, and Daniel Nikandrov also scored for Sarnia, while Mike Dipaolo picked up his first career OHL goal.

Garret Ross, Zach Bratina, Terry Trafford and Brandon Lindberg scored for Saginaw.

Knick Dawe made 38 saves to get the win, while Saginaw’s Jake Paterson gave up eight goals on just 17 shots and was pulled after the second period.

Sarnia’s Charlie Sarault had a pair of assists to extend his lead atop the OHL scoring race to four points over the suspended Nick Cousins of Sault Ste. Marie. Plymouth’s Vince Trocheck is five points back in fifth.

The win puts the Sting into a tie for sixth place in the Western Conference with the Soo, though the Greyhounds have two games in hand. Sarnia is also now eight points up on Saginaw for seventh. The Spirit have two games in hand, and the teams will meet one more time, two weeks from now in Sarnia.

paul.owen@sunmedia.ca