Despite a scoring flurry, the Guelph Storm came up short Sunday in a high-energy affair against their Midwest division foes.
The London Knights eked out an 8-7 victory over the Storm in OHL action at the Sleeman Centre Nov. 10, despite four goals from Guelph’s Max Namestnikov.
The first goal from the 20-year-old forward came 37 seconds into the first period on the Storm’s first shot of the game. Twenty-two seconds later, Cam Allen fired the puck toward the goal tand managed to get past Knights’ netminder Austin Elliott (19 saves) for a 2-0 Guelph lead.
The Knights responded within 16 seconds of Allen’s goal with one from William Nicol (one goal, three assists). They would tie it up later in the period on Henry Brzustewicz’s first of two in the game to make it 2-2.
“We had a good start to the game, I thought we just took over the game,” said Namestnikov who now has six goals on the season.
“Then they kind of bounced back with a few shots and those went in. It was just how the game started.”
Guelph opened the second period ahead 3-2 before London took the lead for the first time in the game on goals by Brzustewicz and James Wooley. The game then went back and forth with the Storm tying the game only to have the Knights regain the lead on three different occasions.
Despite the offensive output, Storm head coach Cory Stillman wasn’t happy with the way his team let the Knights take control of the game.
“(The Knights) are a team that can score goals,” he said. “We got a bit into a track meet and that’s not the way we can play hockey games.”
Stillman, however, was pleased with Namestnikov’s performance on the ice after coming into Sunday’s match with two goals in his first 15 games.
“He’s had some Grade-A quality chances the last three or four games,” Stillman said. “For us to be successful and to win, he is going to need to score maybe not every night but at least on a consistent basis.”
Namestnikov believes he is now in a good spot, especially since the return of Jett Luchanko.
“It’s nice having Jett back and Vilmir (Alriksson) going too,” Namestnikov said. “We were pretty good. We need to bring that every night.”
Luchanko (four assists), Alriksson (one goal, two assists), and Carter Stevens (two assists) all had multi-point games while Brayden Gillespie finished with 24 saves for the Storm.
The Knights were led by Evan Van Gorp who had a goal and four assists. Easton Cowan scored to extend his point streak to 13 games.
The next game for the Storm is this Friday night at home against the Niagara Ice Dogs. Catch all Guelph Storm games on 1460 CJOY.