The Guelph Storm are building momentum at just the right time.
Before Thursday, the Storm were equal in points with the Erie Otters for fifth place in the Western Conference. OHL’s Western Conference.
The Storm had back-to-back wins against the Kitchener Rangers and points in their last four games. They aimed to replicate this against the Owen Sound Attack Owen Sound Attack as they faced off at Sleeman Centre for the first game of a home-and-home series.
Guelph achieved their third consecutive win by defeating Owen Sound 5-3. This victory puts the Storm five points ahead of the Attack, who currently hold 7th place.
“We’ve been on a little bit of a streak here and want to keep that going,” said Charlie Paquette, who scored two goals in the game for the Storm.
“We went through a rough patch and worked together to get out of it. I think we're all pretty confident.”
Ryan McGuire scored the first goal for the Storm, marking his fourth of the season at the 9:12 mark of the first period, giving Guelph a 1-0 lead. This was matched by Colby Barlow, the leading goal scorer for the Attack, 1:31 later, and the game was tied at 1-1.
With the Storm leading 2-1 at the start of the second period, Paquette scored two goals just 18 seconds apart, bringing his total to 20 goals for the season and establishing a 4-1 lead for Guelph.
Damian Slavik started in net for the third consecutive game in place of the injured Brayden Gillespie. Slavik made 24 saves for the win.
“Everyone is sticking to the system and everything is starting to go our way,” Paquette said of the Storm’s third consecutive win.
Storm captain Braeden Bowman hopes the team can carry this momentum into the playoffs, which begin next week.
“That’s just showing what we can do here the last couple of weeks,” he said. “The last couple of games we’ve been putting it together and we’re going to keep it going.”
Bowman, fellow overagers Chandler Romeo, and the injured Brayden Hislop are in their final season in the OHL and were honored in a ceremony before the game.
“I love my time in Guelph, really enjoyed it,” said Bowman. “The way (the organization) did tonight was really awesome and they honored all three of us really nicely.”
Gavin Grundner (7th) and Vilmer Alrikson (17th) also scored for the Storm (32-27-6-1) while Cam Allen collected three assists.
Barlow finished with two while Servac Petrovsky had the other Attack goal on a penalty shot at the 12:52 mark of the third period. Carter George made 28 saves for the Attack (29-30-5-3).
The second game of the home-and-home is Saturday afternoon in Owen Sound. You can hear the game on 1460 CJOY starting with the pre-game show at 3:45 p.m.
