Guelph Storm battle it out in victory against the London Knights

The Guelph Storm were able to flex their muscle against the top team in the Ontario Hockey League.

The Storm were led by their goaltender Brayden Gillespie as they defeated the visiting London Knights 5-4 Wednesday night in front of 4,723 at the Sleeman Centre.

“We needed the points,” said Gillespie who finished with 40 saves in the victory.

“It’s a close race between Erie, Owen Sound, and us so we need every point we can get.”

Guelph got off to a hot start, putting three behind Knights netminder Michael Simpson in a span of 5:43 in the first period to take a 3-0 lead.

London responded with two in the second and one in the third to tie it up at 3-3.

The game featured plenty of puck battles and hard hits something head coach Chad Wiseman felt was missing from his team the last few games.

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“I thought we had a lot of good contact, especially on the forecheck. We slowed (the Knights) defense down,” Wiseman said. “They don’t have to be huge hits, but they are hits that separate players from pucks and create space for yourself.”

Then the grinders helped put the Storm ahead for good.

Ryan McGuire scored his 3rd of the season at the 6:44 mark of the third period. That was followed by Leo Serlin’s 9th of the year at 13:16 to put Guelph up 5-3.

“The game came down to the wire and all of the guys did what they needed to win this game,” said Gillespie.

The Storm were outshot the entire game (47-21 for London) but Wiseman said his team were able to stick to their game plan.

“When you play the right way, you have an opportunity every night to compete and win hockey games.”

Vilmer Alriksson, Braeden Bowman, and former Knight Brody Crane also scored for the Storm. Maple Leaf draft pick Easton Cowan led the Knights (43-13-1-3) scoring with a pair of goals, extending his point streak to 30 games. Denver Barkey, and Jackson Edward each collected a pair of assists.

The win leapfrogs the Storm (28-25-5-1) over the Otters and Attack into fifth place in the OHL’s Western Conference by one point.

Next game for the Storm is Friday night when they travel to Sault Ste. Marie to play the Greyhounds. You can listen to the game on 1460 CJOY starting at 6:45 p.m.