The Guelph Storm probably skated off the ice Friday night feeling like they might want to crawl under a rock. The Flint Firebirds made themselves at home at the Sleeman Centre and left the Royal City with a 7-2 victory.
The second period seemed to be the Storm’s undoing. Up 1-0, the Firebirds chased starting goaltender Brayden Gillespie from the game after scoring three times in that period to take a 4-0 lead.
Gillespie, with 19 saves, was replaced by netminder Colin Ellsworth, who didn’t fare much better. He allowed a goal 31 seconds in on the first shot he faced, which put Flint up 5-0.
“It seemed like if we did make a mistake, it ended up in the back of our net,” Storm head coach Cory Stillman said, summing up his team’s performance in the second period. “We turned pucks over at the blue line, we had bad changes, we had bad puck management.”
The Storm got their first goal of the game 11 seconds later off the stick of Vilmer Alriksson to trail 5-1. But Blake Smith’s first goal of the season, with 55.6 seconds remaining in the period, would restore the five-goal lead for the Firebirds.
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It was not the kind of game Charlie Paquette wanted as he celebrated a milestone. Paquette, who will turn 19 in December, was playing in his 200th career OHL game. “Two hundred games it’s a long time, goes by quick,” he said.
The veteran forward didn’t have much else to say afterwards as his team suffered what was easily their worst loss so far this season.
The Storm were able to find a spark in the third period, outshooting the Firebirds 18-3. But the hill proved to be too much to climb for Guelph.
“(The Firebirds) got the bounces tonight,” Stillman said. “They deserved them, and we didn’t work hard enough to get them.”
The Storm were already missing some key players due to injuries and could be without forward Ryan McGuire for a number of games. McGuire was assessed a major penalty for head check on Firebirds forward Kaden Pitre late in the third period and could face a suspension.
Nathan Aspinall (four points) and Cole Zurkawski (three points) each scored twice while Nathan Day stopped 35 shots for the victorious Firebirds (5-5-0-1).
The Storm (4-6-0-1) have now lost five in a row and will be back on the ice Saturday night when they travel to Barrie to take on the Colts before returning to Guelph Sunday afternoon to play the Brampton Steelheads.
You can listen to all the Storm games this season on 1460 CJOY.
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