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Storm blank Erie to finish home portion of regular season

GUELPH – Brayden Gillespie stopped all 14 shots fired his way Friday night to get his first OHL shutout as the Guelph Storm wrapped up the home part of their regular season with a 3-0 victory over the Erie Otters at the Sleeman Centre.

The Storm scored twice in the first period and once in the second for the win.


Guelph Storm 3 Erie Otters 0

Braeden Bowman on a power play and Zackary Sandhu three minutes later accounted for the first-period goals while Max Namestnikov added the second-period tally. Matthew Poitras assisted on all three goals while Bowman had two assists and Michael Buchinger had one.

The Storm outshot the Otters 24-14 thanks to a 12-2 advantage in the opening period. The teams took six shots apiece in the second and third periods.

Guelph went 1-for-3 on its power play while Erie was scoreless on four power plays. The Storm also won 26 of 48 faceoffs in the game.

Jacob Gibbons had 21 saves for Erie.

The win lifts the Storm into sixth in the Western Conference standings at 34-28-4-1 with a single game to go in their regular season. They’re two points behind the fifth-place Flint Firebirds (35-27-4-1), one ahead of the seventh-place Kitchener Rangers (33-28-6-0) and four up on the eighth-place Owen Sound Attack (31-28-6-1). Owen Sound has two games to play while the Storm, Flint and Kitchener each have one. All are assured of playoff berths.

Windsor Spitfires (44-17-4-2), London Knights (43-21-2-0) and Sarnia Sting (40-17-5-4) are locked into finishing first to third in the conference. Windsor and London get the top two spots due to clinching first-place finishes in their division while Sarnia is the best of the rest and can’t be caught by anyone behind.

One of those three teams will be the Storm’s opponent in the best-of-seven conference quarter-finals that are to start next week.

Saginaw Spirit (36-25-3-2) are fourth in the conference, two points ahead of Flint with two games to go. Soo Greyhounds (20-32-9-6) and Erie (20-40-2-5) are ninth and 10th respectively and each have a single game left in their seasons.

While the Storm will lose any tie-breaker with Flint or Kitchener, they’ll win one with Owen Sound. Those ties will be broken using the results of the regular-season series with the tied teams.

Flint took three of the four games with Guelph this season while Kitchener won six of its eight-game series with the locals. The Storm won five of the 10 games with Owen Sound, but a loss in overtime will give Guelph the series win.

The Storm are to finish their regular season Saturday with a game against the Spirt at Saginaw’s Dow Event Center. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

 

  • Guelph Sports Journal

Storm blank Erie to finish home portion of regular season

GUELPH – Brayden Gillespie stopped all 14 shots fired his way Friday night to get his first OHL shutout as the Guelph Storm wrapped up the home part of their regular season with a 3-0 victory over the Erie Otters at the Sleeman Centre.

The Storm scored twice in the first period and once in the second for the win.


Guelph Storm 3
Erie Otters 0

Braeden Bowman on a power play and Zackary Sandhu three minutes later accounted for the first-period goals while Max Namestnikov added the second-period tally. Matthew Poitras assisted on all three goals while Bowman had two assists and Michael Buchinger had one.

The Storm outshot the Otters 24-14 thanks to a 12-2 advantage in the opening period. The teams took six shots apiece in the second and third periods.

Guelph went 1-for-3 on its power play while Erie was scoreless on four power plays. The Storm also won 26 of 48 faceoffs in the game.

Jacob Gibbons had 21 saves for Erie.

The win lifts the Storm into sixth in the Western Conference standings at 34-28-4-1 with a single game to go in their regular season. They’re two points behind the fifth-place Flint Firebirds (35-27-4-1), one ahead of the seventh-place Kitchener Rangers (33-28-6-0) and four up on the eighth-place Owen Sound Attack (31-28-6-1). Owen Sound has two games to play while the Storm, Flint and Kitchener each have one. All are assured of playoff berths.

Windsor Spitfires (44-17-4-2), London Knights (43-21-2-0) and Sarnia Sting (40-17-5-4) are locked into finishing first to third in the conference. Windsor and London get the top two spots due to clinching first-place finishes in their division while Sarnia is the best of the rest and can’t be caught by anyone behind.

One of those three teams will be the Storm’s opponent in the best-of-seven conference quarter-finals that are to start next week.

Saginaw Spirit (36-25-3-2) are fourth in the conference, two points ahead of Flint with two games to go. Soo Greyhounds (20-32-9-6) and Erie (20-40-2-5) are ninth and 10th respectively and each have a single game left in their seasons.

While the Storm will lose any tie-breaker with Flint or Kitchener, they’ll win one with Owen Sound. Those ties will be broken using the results of the regular-season series with the tied teams.

Flint took three of the four games with Guelph this season while Kitchener won six of its eight-game series with the locals. The Storm won five of the 10 games with Owen Sound, but a loss in overtime will give Guelph the series win.

The Storm are to finish their regular season Saturday with a game against the Spirt at Saginaw’s Dow Event Center. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

 

  • Guelph Sports Journal