The OHL playoffs don’t begin until the end of March, but the atmosphere inside the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ont., Friday night certainly felt like it.
The Guelph Storm withstood a third period rally by the visiting Flint Firebirds and hung on for a 5-4 victory in front of an announced crowd of 4,291.
“It was a tough game, kind of felt like a playoff game,” said Storm forward Ben McFarlane who finished with one goal and two assists on the night.
The win moves the Storm (23-21-4-1) one point ahead of the Firebirds (23-25-3-1) for sixth place in the western conference.
Guelph got off to a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Cooper Walker and McFarlane.
Flint answered back 64 seconds into the second period thanks to Braeden Kressler’s 24th on the season to make it 2-1 for the Storm.
With Guelph up 3-1, the Storm were down two men and the Firebirds applied pressure on Storm netminder Patrick Leaver.
But Leaver, who finished with 30 saves, stood tall making some big stops that allowed Guelph to kill off the two penalties.
“Sometimes I take penalty kills as a challenge,” said Leaver. “They could of have got a lot of momentum from that but we had a good kill and the boys have been playing well.”
Down 4-1 midway through the third period, Tristen Bertucci scored twice 4:36 apart to give Flint some life and trail Guelph 4-3. But that was close as the Firebirds got to tying the game.
“Start of the year, we probably wouldn’t have been able to (handle the adversity),” McFarlane said. “But throughout the year, we’ve grown as a team personality-wise, come a lot closer, learned when to dig in deep, and how to play together.”
Will Cranley made 24 saves in the loss for the Firebirds.
Both teams had plenty of chances with the man advantage but Guelph managed only one goal on seven chances. Flint also scored one on eight opportunities.
The next game for the Storm is Saturday night when they welcome the Midwest Division leading London Knights.
You can catch the game on 1460 CJOY with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m. The opening face off will be at 7 p.m.
Comments