A rookie came up big for the Guelph Storm in their season opener.
Forward Leo Serlin scored twice in his first OHL game as the Storm doubled up the visiting Owen Sound Attack 4-2 on Friday night.
Both of Serlin’s goals came off lucky bounces. The first one was scored after the puck went off an official during a clearing attempt late in the first period. On the second goal, the puck seem to find Serlin’s stick midway through the second period.
“Should have got a lottery ticket, got a little lucky on (the second goal),” joked Serlin.
“Right place at the right time (on the first goal). That one was a little better. That one I actually could put in.”
Michael Buchinger opened the scoring for the Storm 4:45 in the first, followed by Serlin’s first at 17:38 for a 2-0 lead. The Attack replied in the second as they applied pressure in the Storm zone and Deni Goure scored his first of two for Owen Sound to cut Guelph’s lead down to 2-1.
Despite moving the puck around and getting some good shots, the Storm took some penalties during three of their power plays.
“I felt we had some good looks on our power play,” said head coach Chad Wiseman.
“Unfortunately we took two penalties while on the power play early in the game. I thought our penalty kill was strong. Our willingness to block shots and do the little things to make sure the puck got 200 feet from our net.”
Captain Braeden Bowman had the other goal for the Storm.
Brayden Gillespie was sharp in net, making some huge saves — especially on the penalty kill. He stopped 34 Owen Sound shots in the victory. Corbin Voltary had 27 saves in the loss for the Attack. He also stopped Jake Karabela on a penalty shot at the 12:19 mark of the second period.
Both teams failed to score with the man advantage. Guelph on five opportunities, seven for Owen Sound.
The next game for the Storm is Saturday night when they travel to Windsor to take on the Spitfires. You can listen to the game on 1460 CJOY with the pre-game show at 6:50 p.m. then Larry Mellott will have the call at 7:05 p.m.