The Guelph Storm were involved in another high-scoring game Friday night, putting the puck in the net in the first minute for the second straight time and going on to an 8-5 win over the Niagara IceDogs.
Jett Luchanko, a first-round pick for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2024 draft, did the honours of scoring the first goal, which occurred 47 seconds into the game. He finished the night with two goals and an assist.
“Not sure if that was part of the plan,” Luchanko said, smiling at the Storm’s recent scoring surge. “As long as we are winning those games then we’re happy.”
Luchanko has four goals and 11 assists in seven games since returning to the Storm from NHL camp. He said his mindset remains the same.
“Nothing changes, just keep doing what I’m doing. Come to the rink, do my hardest and good things will come.”
In Friday’s game, the Storm and the IceDogs headed into the second period with the score tied 1-1. That’s when things started to open up, with both teams scoring twice in the first half of the frame.
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Leo Serlin put Guelph up 3-2 with his goal at the 10:02 mark. That was followed by Ethan Czata’s goal for Niagara 19 seconds later to tie it at 3-3, only to have the Storm regain the lead 10 seconds after that on a goal by Cam Allen.
“We know they’re a high-power team,” Storm head coach Cory Stillman said of the IceDogs (13-6-0-0).
“We know they can score goals, they want to score goals. I think at times we let them back in but as long as we score more goals than them and win then it is an entertaining game.”
With the score tied at 4-4, the Storm began to pull away in the third period, scoring four times in the frame. That is also when it started getting physical.
During a fight with 5:13 left in the third, three players received 10-minute misconducts, IceDogs forward Kevin He received a game misconduct for being the third man in a fight and goaltender Owen Flores (48 saves) was also out of the game for leaving the crease to engage in a fight.
Stillman, for one, liked the way his squad responded to the physicality of the IceDog players.
“You want to see a team game and you want to see team toughness,” he said. “When push came to shove, when they had guys on Jett, we jumped in.”
Max Namestnikov (one goal, three assists), Will McFadden, Hunter Mackenzie, and Danill Skvortsov rounded out the scoring for the Storm (6-10-1-1) while Brayden Gillespie stopped 25 shots in the win.
It’s a short turnaround for the Storm as they host the London Knights at Sleeman Centre Saturday afternoon for the second time in the last three games. You can listen to the game on 1460 CJOY.
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