The Guelph Storm managed to grind out a win over the visiting Oshawa Generals on Sunday.
Jett Luchanko had a three-point afternoon as the Storm edged the Generals 3-2 at the Sleeman Centre.
The start of the game for the Storm looked like it was a carry-over from Friday’s shutout loss to the Windsor Spitfires.
Guelph got plenty of chances early on, but were not able to get one past former Storm goaltender Jacob Oster (30 saves) through the first 20 minutes of play. Oshawa, meanwhile, took a 1-0 lead at 4:18 into the first period, on a power play goal by Luca Marrelli.
It wasn’t until the 14:47 mark of the second period that the Storm tied it up on Luchanko’s 9th goal of the season.
“Last game (against Windsor) we didn’t get many goals,” said the second-year forward. “We needed one to get the flood gates open.”
And it sure did. 1:09 later, Luchanko scored his second of the game to give Guelph a 2-1 lead. The goal came on a nifty pass from Vilmer Alriksson. He along with Gaven Grundner, were given most of the credit by Luchanko for his two goals.
“None of that was on me, it was all them,” said Luchanko who later assisted on Braeden Bowman’s power-play goal in the third period.
Storm head coach Chad Wiseman felt Luchanko’s goals gave the team some spark.
“Getting shutout last game… it could have been one of those situations once it goes in, we’ll get a few,” said Wiseman. “We did a good job generating a tonne of chances. Once got one, we were able to get a few more.”
Oshawa was down 3-1 in the third, when Rasmus Kumpulainen off the face-off took a feed from Calum Ritchie and scored on a 5-on-3 power play to cut the Generals’ (9-12-2-1) deficit to one.
But Damian Slavik, in just his sixth start of the season, closed the door the rest of the way stopping 27 shots and securing the victory for the Storm (16-9-0-1).
“I thought Slavvy tracked the puck well and I thought we played well in front of him,” Wiseman said.
The next game for the Storm is Tuesday night when they make the short drive down Highway 7 to Kitchener to take on the Rangers.
Game time is 7 p.m. and you can catch all the action on 1460 CJOY.