Guelph Storm fall to surging Niagara Ice Dogs in weekend finale

The Guelph Storm did not end their three-game week the way they had hoped to when they hosted the Niagara Ice Dogs at the Sleeman Centre on Sunday afternoon.

After impressive wins over the Peterborough Petes on Thursday evening and another win over the Owen Sound Attack on Friday night, the Storm were the victims of a surging Niagara Ice Dogs team who took the game 4-3 to win their third in a row.

Guelph, coming off back-to-back wins including the 5-2 victory at home against the Attack on Friday, were looking to do much of the same during the matinee battle, but it was all Niagara for the first 20 minutes of the contest as Akil Thomas opened the scoring for the Ice Dogs at 4:04.

That opening goal was followed up by a power-play netter from right-winger Kirill Maksimov at 17:34 to wrap up the period.

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Storm captain Isaac Ratcliffe would finally open up the scoring for Guelph in the second period with a short-handed goal 6:46 into the second bracket to add to his already impressive month of January.

However, the one-goal deficit quickly turned into a third goal bubble for the Storm as Niagara would score back-to-back goals at 16:23 from Jason Roberston and the second of the night for Akil Thomas at 17:17 to take the 4-to-1 lead.

Guelph would dominate the third period, scoring another pair of goals including a netter from defenceman Sean Durzi at 1:17 and an Owen Lalonde goal at 8:11 but it wasn’t enough for the Storm to close the gap as they fall to the Ice Dogs 4-3.

The Storm loss wasn’t due to poor offensive effort as Guelph outshot Niagara 52 to 32, proving Stephen Dhillon was the right call to get the start in net.

Guelph still remains in fourth place of the OHL‘s Western Conference standings at 56 points on the year, only four points behind the third-place Saginaw Spirit at 60.

The Storm returns to action on Friday, Jan. 22 for the first of two on a quiet January weekend as they welcome the Owen Sound Attack to the Sleeman Centre for the second Friday in a row, before heading south of the border and visiting the Erie Otters in Pennsylvania on Sunday night.

Catch all the Storm hockey action this weekend on 1460 CJOY.