Genovese lifts Otters over Storm
Guelph, Ontario – The Otters hopped out to an early lead before the Storm took over, but it was Cory Genovese’s last second goal lifted the Otters over Guelph 3-2.
It looked like the Otters opened the scoring early after the puck found its way behind Justin Nichols, but it was immediately waved off and reviewed, keeping the game at a stalemate. Connor McDavid took care of that, putting the puck in right in front of Nichols from linemate Nick Baptiste. Guelph had a close call to even the score with a two-on-one opportunity, but newly returned Genovese dropped in front of the puck, breaking up the play, before Devin Williams made two quick saves in a row. A scrum broke out in the Storm zone, resulting in slashing minors to McDavid and Phil Baltisberger and unsportsmanlike minors to Pius Suter and Kurtis MacDermid. Darren Raddysh was caught roughing, putting the Storm on the power play going into intermission.
Tyler Bertuzzi didn’t need long to tie things at one with a power play goal 33 seconds into the period. With Patrick Fellows in the box for hooking, the Otters went to work on the power play. MacDermid hit Jason Dickinson behind the Otters net, resulting in a five minute major for checking from behind and a game misconduct. The Otters were able to kill both the shortened five-on-three and the remainder of the major penalty before Bertuzzi came in and scored his second of the period to put the Storm up 2-1 with just over three minutes to go in the period.
As quickly as Bertuzzi started the second, Dylan Strome kicked off the third. It took Strome 38 seconds to connect on the Guelph net from Alex DeBrincat to tie the game at two. From there, it was back and forth chances, with Bertuzzi nearly netting his third in the second half of the frame. It looked as though DeBrincat had scored the go-ahead goal for the Otters, but it was waved off. After some shoving around the Guelph net, DeBrincat and Marc Stevens sat for unsportsmanlike minors. Playing four-on-four, McDavid skated into the zone and, after some cycling, Genovese put the game winner behind Nichols with 19 seconds left on the clock for the Otters 3-2 victory.
The Otters have Saturday night off before moving onto Owen Sound Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
The Iron Workers Local Union No. 3 Ironmen of the Game:
3. Phil Baltisberger – 1A
2. Connor McDavid – 1G
1. Tyler Bertuzzi – 2G
