BRAMPTON, Ont. – A healthy and rejuvenated Michael Santini provided the Brampton Battalion with offensive punch on the weekend.

Right winger Santini scored three goals to power the Battalion to a 6-1 Ontario Hockey League victory Sunday over the visiting Sarnia Sting after netting the overtime winner in a 2-1 road decision Friday night over the Ottawa 67’s.

“It’s been really important for my confidence,” said Santini, one of four overagers on the roster. “I didn’t have very good confidence coming back from injury, but I’m getting my confidence back slowly now.”

Santini’s output against Sarnia constituted his second career three-goal game. He recorded the first 52 weeks to the day earlier in a 7-4 home-ice win over the Sudbury Wolves.  

“My shoulder is getting better, so it’s a good feeling to be able to come back and contribute the way I have been.”

Said Battalion coach Stan Butler of Santini: “He’s an offensive-type player. Obviously, that’s what Michael is here for, and that’s the type of thing he’s got to do.”

The Battalion, which hit the Christmas break in the schedule on a season-high six-game winning streak, has a won-lost-extended record of 20-10-4 for 44 points, first in the Central Division and one point behind the 67’s, the East Division and Eastern Conference leaders.

“Our team has shown some great pride here by playing great defence, and our goalies are standing up tall, so we just have to keep playing the same way in the second half,” said Santini. “The Christmas break will be good for all the boys, and hopefully when I come back I’ll be able to keep on playing the way I have been.”

A resident of Woodbridge, Ont., Santini has battled through two injuries this season, a high-ankle sprain and a separated shoulder. He was out of the lineup for a month after suffering the ankle sprain in a 5-1 victory Oct. 10 over the visiting Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors and was sidelined for two weeks after incurring the shoulder separation in a 3-0 win Nov. 20 at Sudbury.

“I just kept working hard on and off the ice, doing the bag-skating after practice so that I could stay in shape and be ready.”

Santini has four goals and five assists for nine points in 16 games. After losing 18 games to injury, he scored his first goal of the season at Ottawa.

Entering the break on a three-game points streak that has seen him register four goals and one assist, he has four goals and two assists for six points in five games since returning from the shoulder separation.  

“I just keep taking the bounces here and there, and hopefully I can keep that going after the break,” said Santini, a fifth-round pick by Sarnia in the 2007 OHL Priority Selection whose rights were secured off the Mississauga list in January, 2010.

He was fifth in Battalion scoring last season with 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points in 56 games.