Luchanko’s First Multi-Point Game Leads Guelph to 4-1 Win Over Sarnia
Written by Carl Chimenti
Jett Luchanko had a goal and an assist to help power the Guelph Storm to a 4-1 victory over the Sarnia Sting, Sunday afternoon, at the Sleeman Centre. Luchanko, playing in just his second game after he was returned by the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, scored in the first period, with what proved to be the winning goal, and later added an assist in the third period on the Storm’s fourth goal, and was selected as the first star. Guelph’s netminder Zachary Jovanovski was also a big part of the win as he stopped all but one of the 29 shots he faced and was named the second star. Ben Pickell scored the lone Sting goal, from both Liam Beamish and Easton Walos in the second period and captured the third star. For Pickell, it was his fifth goal of the season. Beamish had his second assist in his last two games and Walos extended his scoring streak with his third straight helper in as many games. Patrick Quinlan was solid in net for the Sting as he turned away 30 of 34 shots.
Guelph scored the only goal in the third period, as the final twenty minutes turned into a hard hitting and nasty affair, that featured multiple players getting ejected, including Sting captain Lukas Fischer (St. Louis Blues) after plummeted Rowen Topp with a number of blows to his face. Fischer was then tossed after the fight for an unsportsmanlike game misconduct. Sarnia’s only goal was a power-play marker as they went 1/3. Guelph finished 0/3. Guelph out-shot Sarnia 34-29. The Storm scored a couple of even strength goals in the first period and they dominated the shot clock 17-5. Grant Spada (Tampa Bay Lightning) scored with a wrist shot from the high slot at 5:07 to open the scoring with Leo Serlin and Alex McLean assisting. It took Guelph only 97 seconds to up their lead to a pair of goals. Luchanko scored his first goal of the season as he broke in on Quinlan, and as he did, he went from back-hand to fore-hand, before putting the puck into the net at 6:33 from Charlie Paquette (Dallas Stars).
Sarnia came close in the last few minutes. Shorthanded, Sarnia forced a turnover in their own end and that created a 2 on 0 break with Carson Hall and Liam Beamish. Hall carried the puck, and at the last moment set up Beamish with a nice pass. Beamish seemed to fan on the shot, and the puck went wide of the Storm net. Quinlan was sharp and made his best save in the final minute with a shoulder high save, with Guelph on the power-play. Sarnia was the better team in the second period despite trading goals with Guelph, as they out-shot the Storm 17-8.
The third Guelph goal was a strange one and it came at 8:29. Noah Jenkin seemed to hit Quinlan in the back with a shot from a bad angle and it trickled behind the Sting goaltender and into the net. Somehow, McLean was given credit for the goal with Jenken and Serlin assisting on the scoring play. Later in the period Guelph was assessed a pair of minor penalties giving the Sting a 5 on 3 man-advantage for 1:28, which lead to the Sarnia scoring play, just before the second power-play expired. Sarnia managed to win a face-off in the Storm end. Walos jumped on the puck and he sent a pass to Beamish who quickly did like-wise to Pickell. Pickell stumbled a bit but was able to beat Jovanovski for the Sting goal. With less than five minutes to play Guelph defenseman Eric Frossard was handed a five minute major, along with a match penalty, for a high stick that clipped a Sting player in the face. The play then went under a lengthy review, that took almost five minutes, before the ruling was made official. Unfortunately for the Sting they did not cash in and both teams skated into the second intermission with Guelph up 3-1.
