It was a strong effort by the Guelph Storm but it wasn’t enough to get by the visiting Owen Sound Attack.
Servac Petrovsky (1 goal, 1 assist) sealed the 3-2 win for the Attack with his ninth goal of the season 1:37 into overtime.
4,603 fans at the Sleeman Centre on Friday night watched a goaltending duel as the Storm’s Brayden Gillespie (30 saves) and Carter George (34 saves) of the Attack were matching each other save for save.
The Storm (16-10-1-1) had the advantage in puck possession in the first period which saw no goals scored and no penalties assessed.
“I thought we managed the puck in the offensive zone better than we’ve had all year,” said Storm head coach Chad Wiseman.
It wasn’t until 4:38 into the second period when Braeden Bowman got Guelph on the board with his 13th on the season for a 1-0 lead.
But with :22 left in the period, Ethan Burroughs tied it up for Owen Sound with his 11th of the season on the power play. The Attack (14-11-2-0) finished 1-for-2 with the man advantage which is ranked second in the OHL.
Meanwhile, Guelph’s power play came up empty on two occasions. The Storm were sixth in scoring with the man advantage on November 24th. It has fallen to ninth prior to Friday’s game.
But Storm defenseman Michael Buchinger, who was recently invited to tryout for Canada’s national junior team, doesn’t seem too concerned with the team’s lack of production with the man advantage.
“The power play will score goals sometimes, and sometimes it won’t,” said Buchinger who collected an assist in the game. “Just trying to regain confidence and not focusing on the games that happened before and kind of focusing on moving forward.”
James Petrovsky (3rd) of the Attack and Gavin Grundner (3rd) of the Storm exchanged third period goals and it remained tied at 2-2 after regulation.
Wiseman said there was nothing much that his team could do against an Attack team that is now 10-3-2-0 on the road this season.
“I thought we generated a lot of offensive opportunities, I thought we defended well,” he said. “It’s one of those games that you leave the game wanting more or maybe you deserve more. But that’s hockey.”
With Buchinger heading to Oakville for the selection camp that begins on Sunday and three other D-men out with injuries, the Storm called up Adam Shillinglaw from the Junior A Hearst Lumberjacks of the NOJHL. He made his debut on Friday on his 19th birthday and got an assist on Grundner’s goal.
The next game for the Storm is Saturday night when they head to Erie to battle the Otters. Catch all the action on 1460 CJOY starting at 6:45 p.m.
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