In the Ontario Hockey League, the Greyhounds dogged the Storm in just about every area of the game Friday night.
Sault Ste. Marie improved to 2-0 in the new year after defeating Guelph 5-2 at the Sleeman Centre.
It was a big night for Elmira native Brady Martin who scored and added an assist for the victorious Greyhounds (25-10-2-1).
“It’s always great coming to my hometown,” said Martin. “Bunch of family here. It’s great and I can’t wait to keep it going this season.”
The first period saw both teams exchange goals; one by Brendan Sirizzotti put the Greyhounds up 1-0 only to have Jett Luchanko get the equalizer for the Storm 1:54 later.
The Soo would take a 2-1 lead on a goal by Justin Cloutier 45 seconds into the second period, on a power play, to go up 2-1. But 1:52 later, Braeden Bowman recorded his team-leading 20th of the season to tie the game again at 2-2.
The Greyhounds would pull away as Travis Hayes (1 goal, 1 assist) scored their second goal of the game with the man advantage at the 6:10 mark, followed by Martin’s goal at 14:13.
Alex Kostov added a third-period goal for Sault Ste. Marie who avenged their Dec. 16 shootout loss to the Storm in Guelph.
“We needed those two points,” Martin said. “We lost in that shootout so it was great to get the two instead of one.”
As for the Storm (21-13-2-1), they were plagued by mistakes, especially in their own end, throughout the game and never really seemed to get it going.
“I think we could have had a bit more intensity the last couple of periods,” said Bowman. “We just need to make sure we’re a little more consistent and I think we’ll be right there with them.”
Storm head coach Chad Wiseman wouldn’t point to one particular area where the team was exposed, but he felt his team couldn’t capitalize on their scoring opportunities and allowed too many to the opposition.
“The game is full of mistakes, it’s kind of how you respond after making those mistakes,” Wiseman said. “I thought we compounded those errors, two and three mistakes instead of cutting our losses at one and live to fight another day.”
Landon Miller stopped 28 shots for the Greyhounds while Brayden Gillespie had 29 saves for the Storm.
Sault Ste. Marie went 2-for-4 on the power play, Guelph also had man-advantage opportunities four times but couldn’t score.
The next game for the Storm is Saturday night when they travel to Owen Sound to take on the Attack. They return home Sunday for a matinee against the Sarnia Sting.
You can listen to the games on 1460 CJOY.
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