Storm look dandy early in series
By Paul Osborne, ‘From the Stands’ – The Guelph Tribune – To quote the always eloquent Jim Carrey in the movie Ace Venture: Pet Detective . . . “Alrighty then!”
Eyebrows around Ontario are higher than the CN Tower these days with the upstart Guelph Storm leading
the heavily favoured Plymouth Whalers 2-0 in their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series.
And it hasn’t been accomplished with smoke and mirrors, but with hard work and timely goaltending
from Garret Sparks.
This is junior hockey so nothing counts as a complete shock but with the Whalers ranked as the sixth best team in Canada heading in the playoffs, and the Storm fighting tooth and nail just to make the post-season,
it has caused people to sit up and take notice.
You could sense it in the crowd Sunday night as the Storm let a 3-0 lead slip away. Fans became quiet, almost expecting the Whalers to score the next goal and win. But it didn’t happen that way.
“I thought we responded better when they made it 3-3 than we did when we were ahead 3-2,” admitted
Storm coach Scott Walker. “The guys are just working extremely hard, and in the playoffs it’s all about the little things and we’re looking after them so far.”
“(When Plymouth tied it) everyone really became focused and we became somewhat relaxed,” said rookie
Jason Dickinson (pictured), who continued his inspired play with a goal and an assist. “It was like there was no pressure on us. We know there is pressure to win but we just got back to our game.”
It was like the Storm found another gear and it wasn’t long before Francis Menard, off a scramble in front of the net, put the home side in front to stay. Tanner Richard would score into an empty net to seal the 5-3 win.
Plymouth has a huge size advantage over the Storm but a telling shift with about five minutes left in the game had Storm fans on their feet.
The line of Cody McNaughton, Richard and young Tyler Bertuzzi cycled the puck for an entire shift deep in the Whalers’ zone. No matter how hard the Whalers tried, they couldn’t get the puck away from them.
It went on for so long that the entire line, one at a time, was able to make it to the bench for a line change. The shift finally ended when Dickinson, who had come on for Richard, took the puck hard to the net for a scoring chance. The entire play only lasted about 45 seconds, but it showed incredible heart and determination by the Storm and sent the Whalers a message that Guelph was not about to shy away from
physical play.
“I had a few fans say ‘Why didn’t you play this way all year?’” said Walker. “Well I think these young
kids did as often as they could. Did we play like this for 68 games a year? No, but they worked hard
every practice and every game.”
But in this euphoria, remember, there is a lot of hockey left. I’ve been around long enough to
remember other young Guelph teams that jumped out to surprising two-game leads only to lose
the next four.
The key always seems to be Game 3. If they can go into Plymouth tonight and at least keep it close, they’ll be in good shape. If they go in and get blown out, it will give momentum to a very good team. As well as the Storm has played, the Whalers have been their own worst enemy, showing a complete lack of discipline at
times.
They have to use their size but keep their bruised egos in check.
From the Land of Oz . . . Brock McGinn had a terrific game for the Storm on Sunday night, setting the
stage early with a massive open ice hit. He then made a great pass to Scott Kosmachuk for the game’s
opening goal. Cody McNaughton and Jason Dickinson would score 25 seconds apart late in the first to
give the Storm a stunning 3-0 lead . . . In Game 1, Guelph also jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then rode the
goaltending of Garret Sparks to a 4- 2 victory. Sparks made 45 saves on the night and was named the
game’s first star. Dickinson, Andrey Pedan, Menard and McGinn had the goals for Guelph . . . Scott Walker
invited a few of his former Carolina Hurricanes teammates to Game 2 Sunday night. The likes of Cam Ward and Eric Staal had a couple of days off before playing the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight and seemed to enjoy getting back to their junior roots. Game 3 is tonight in Plymouth at 7:05 p.m. with Game 4 in Guelph Thursday at 7 p.m. Tickets up until Wednesday for Game 4 are just $12, but on game day jump to $22.
