Poitras lifts Storm to preseason victory in shootout
MISSISSAUGA – A goal by Matthew Poitras in a shootout lifted the Guelph Storm to a 5-4 victory over the Mississauga Steelheads in Ontario Hockey League preseason play Thursday night at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.
That goal was the second of the shootout for the Storm as Valentin Zhugin had scored earlier in the shootout. Zhugin was the Storm’s first-round pick in this year’s Canadian Hockey League draft and the 17-year-old Russian forward was playing in his first game with the Storm.
Guelph Storm 5 Mississauga 4 (SO)
Luca DelBelBelluz scored for Mississauga in the shootout.
The win lifts Guelph’s preseason record to 4-1-0-0. As was the case in the previous three wins, the Storm came from behind in the third period. They trailed 3-2 after the second, but took the lead on goals by Cooper Walker and Danny Zhilkin in the first two and a half minutes of the third.
However, a power-play goal by Mississauga’s Zakary Lavoie with 7:19 to go in the third tied the score and forced the shootout. The teams didn’t play an overtime period.
The teams had been tied 1-1 at the end of the first period.
Matthew Papais and Zhugin scored the other goals for Guelph while Cam Allen, Braeden Bowman, Ben McFarlane and Poitras each had an assist.
DelBelBelluz, Owen Beck and James Hardie had the other goals for Mississauga.
Owen Bennett was in the Storm net for the first two periods while Jacob Oster played the third and the shootout. Bennett had 23 saves, Oster five in the third.
Joe Ranger played the complete game in net for the Steelheads.
Mississauga outshot the Storm 32-26 while the Storm won the faceoff battle 44-34.
Both teams had five power plays with the Storm scoring on one of theirs and Mississauga tallying twice with the manpower advantage.
The shootout loss leaves Mississauga with a 1-2-0-2 record in the preseason.
The teams are to wrap up their preseason schedules Friday as they are to battle again Friday – their fourth meeting of the preseason – at the Sleeman Centre. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
The Storm are to open their regular season next weekend with a home-and-home series with the Kitchener Rangers. They’re to play Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Sleeman Centre.
- Guelph Sports Journal