A hard fought battle was for naught as the Windsor Spitfires were eliminated from the 2018 OHL Playoffs by the Sarnia Sting.

Windsor took a series that many thought would be all Sarnia to six-games before falling 5-2 at the WFCU Centre on Sunday.

The Sting came out flying with two unanswered goals by Ryan McGregor and Franco Sproviero to take a 2-0 lead after one period.

Jonathan Ang stretched Sarnia's lead to 3-0 mid-way through the second, but Windsor's William Sirman scored his second of the playoffs to make it a 3-1 game after 40 minutes.

Zach Shankar made it 3-2 just five-minutes into the third, but that would be all the fight Windsor could muster. Jordan Ernst tallied his second of the playoffs to stretch the lead and Hugo Leufvenius put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal for a 5-2 finish.

Spitfires goalie Michael DiPietro bounced back from his knee injury in game five to start on Sunday and put on an impressive performance, making 28 saves.

DiPietro, an Amherstburg native, says he did not want to use his leg as a crutch and “put my team in a situation where I wasn’t in the net.”

Players saluted fans before leaving the ice to end the 2017-2018 season, and they will clean out their lockers on Monday before heading home.