Storm drop fifth in a row with loss to Brantford
GUELPH – The Guelph Storm fell too far behind to recover as they were handed a 6-4 setback by the Brantford Bulldogs in Ontario Hockey League play Friday night at the Sleeman Centre.
The loss was the fifth in a row for the Storm.
Brantford scored the first five goals of the game while all four of Guelph’s goals came in the third period.
The Bulldogs scored the lone goal of the first period and led 5-0 after the second.
Three of the goals in the game came in the final 63 seconds of the game as Brantford had an empty-netter sandwiched between a pair of goals by the Storm.
Jett Luchanko, Max Namestnikov, Vilmer Alriksson and Hunter McKenzie had a goal apiece for the Storm while single goals were awarded to Gavin Grundner, Charlie Paquette, Jake Karabela, Zander Veccia, Quinn Beauchesne, Wil McFadden and Thomas Budnick.
Patrick Thomas struck for a pair of goals for Brantford while single goals were recorded by Noah Nelson, Jake O’Brien, Florian Xhekaj and Adrian Rebelo. Lawson Sherk and Marek Vanacker each had two assists while Cole Brown, Thomas, Daniil Sobolev, O’Brien, Owen Protz and Ben Bujold each had one.
The Storm outshot the Bulldogs 41-31, but were scoreless on five power plays while Brantford went 2-for-3 on its power play and also scored a shorthanded goal.
Brayden Gillespie started in net for the Storm and had 14 saves before being replaced by Damian Slavik after Brantford’s fifth goal at 13:32 of the second period. Slavik had 14 saves the rest of the way.
Matteo Drobac had 37 saves for Brantford.
The win leaves the Storm at 25-20-3-1 (W-L-OTL-SOL) and Brantford at 26-15-6-2. The Storm is third in Midwest Division and fifth in the Western Conference while Brantford leads the East Division and is second in the Eastern Conference.
The Storm are to play the Sarnia Sting (21-27-3-0) at Sarnia’s Progressive Auto Sales Arena Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal