There doesn’t seem to be cause for alarm for the Guelph Storm, even though one was pulled in the middle of Monday’s game between the Storm and the visiting Sudbury Wolves.
The Wolves were coming off a one-sided loss to the Rangers in Kitchener on Sunday before their Family Day matinee at the Sleeman Centre.
David Goyette scored twice and added an assist in Sudbury’s 4-1 victory over the Storm who have now suffered their 8th loss in their last nine games.
There was no scoring during the first two periods but plenty of big saves and huge hits by both teams.
Brayden Gillespie made 38 saves in the loss. He has been through a stretch where his save percentage has been .900 or less but feels the last three games, including Thursday’s win in Peterborough, have allowed him to regain his confidence in net.
“You go through those dry spells for a bit, but when you get back, you know you’re back and it feels really good right now,” said Gillespie.
The game was scoreless until 21 seconds into the third when Goyette scored the first of his two goals on the day. Kocha Delic and Dalibor Dvorsky added goals in the period before Cam Allen answered for Guelph on the powerplay. It was his first goal of the season in the 11 games he has played since recovering from shoulder surgery.
“It was just a few bounces that didn’t go our way and we didn’t capitalize on ours,” said Gillespie of their performance on Monday.
“That’s the luck of the draw. But we’ll be back on Friday (at home against Windsor) better than ever.”
The positive outlook was also shared by Storm head coach Chad Wiseman who believes Gillespie played one of his best games this season.
“Unfortunately, we were a little snake-bit there and couldn’t put one in,” said Wiseman. “We executed our game plan, we competed, I thought our energy was high.”
It was after Goyette’s second of the game into an empty net that the 4,880 in attendance heard sound of the fire alarm but everyone was able to leave the arena safely after the game.
Gillespie’s counterpart, Marcus Vanderberg, collected 30 saves for the Wolves (32-16-3-3). Both teams went 1-for-3 with the man advantage.
You can listen to Friday’s game between the Storm and the visiting Spitfires on 1460 CJOY beginning with the pre-game show at 7:15 p.m. Larry Mellott will have the call starting just after 7:30 p.m.