Guelph Storm nipped in overtime by Saginaw
GUELPH – The Guelph Storm took the Saginaw Spirit to overtime before falling 5-4 in Ontario Hockey League play Friday night at the Sleeman Centre.
The Spirit swept the Storm in the regular-season series, winning all four games with three of the victories coming this month. The other wins were 5-2 at Saginaw’s Dow Event Center Jan. 13, 5-2 at the Sleeman Centre March 3 and 6-0 at Saginaw last Saturday.
Friday, Saginaw scored twice in the final two and a half minutes of regulation time to force the overtime. Josh Bloom scored the winner with 12 seconds to go in the extra period.
The teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the first period and the Storm led 3-1 after the second after scoring a pair of goals 66 seconds apart in the final five minutes of the period.
The Storm held a 4-2 lead with two and a half minutes to go in the third before Michael Misa scored a power-play goal for Saginaw with 2:23 to go and Matyas Sapovaliv pulled the Spirit even with five seconds to play in the period.
Brody Crane, Jake Karabela, Braeden Bowman and Vilmer Alriksson each had a goal for Guelph while Max Namestnikov and Michael Buchinger each had two assists while single assists were awarded to Gavin Grundner, Bowman, Jett Luchanko and Charlie Paquette.
Alex Christopoulos and Calem Mangone scored the other goals for Saginaw while Misa and Bloom each had two assists. Sapovaliv, Rodwin Dionicio, Owen Beck and Zayne Parekh each had one assist.
The Spirit outshot the Storm 43-27 including a 22-7 advantage in the third period and Saginaw had all five shots on net recorded in the overtime. The Spirit went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Storm was 1-for-3.
Brayden Gillespie had 38 saves for Guelph while Andrew Oke had 23 for Saginaw.
The result leaves the Storm at 29-27-6-1 (W-L-OTL-SOL) and Saginaw at 47-15-1-1.
The Storm are to host the Kitchener Rangers (41-21-2-0) Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Sleeman Centre.
- Guelph Sports Journal