Keeping the highest-scoring team in the OHL to just four goals proved to be of little consolation to the Guelph Storm Friday night.
Already without three of their regular defenceman to start the game (Quinn Beauchesne, William Haley, and Daniil Skvortsov), the Storm found themselves short-handed through penalties and unable to bury their own scoring chances in a 4-1 loss to the visiting Windsor Spitfires.
After giving up the opening goal of the game, the Storm evened it up on the power play midway through the first period. Rookie forward Carter Stevens deflected a shot from Jake Karabella past Spitfire goaltender Joey Costanzo to tie the game at 1-1.
For Stevens, it was his first career OHL goal.
“The first period was the best start we had,” Storm head coach Cory Stillman said. “But then we got into penalty trouble. We did a good job defending but it wears on you.”
The second period was where the Storm found themselves short-handed. After taking a 2-1 lead on Ilya Protas’ second goal of the game, Ryan Abraham (one goal, two assists) scored on the power play to give Windsor a 3-1 lead.
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The Storm did fire 33 shots on Constanzo but managed only five of them in the second period. Guelph generated a number of scoring chances and fired more pucks at the net in the third, but they were not able to put one in.
“I thought we pushed hard in the third but couldn’t finish,” Storm defenceman Cam Allen said.
“I had a grade-A chance and couldn’t bury it. If that goes in, maybe it changes the game.”
Stillman said that his team was making quality shots, but few made it to the net and players were not able to bury the rebound.
“Make the goalie make the save,” he said. “Let’s put the puck on and let him make a save. Then we get a rebound, and you never know what will happen.”
Liam Greentree (one goal, three assists) finished with four points for the Spitfires (7-1-1-0).
Brayden Gillespie stopped 30 shots in the loss for the Storm (3-4-0-0).
Both teams went 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
The next game for the Storm is Saturday afternoon when they play the Kitchener Rangers at the Sleeman Centre in the first game of a home-and-home series. Game time is 4:07 p.m. and you can listen to it on 1460 CJOY.
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