Storm drop all three road games this weekend
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury
It seemed only fitting that the Battle of the Basement should go to a shootout.
In the end it was the Sudbury Wolves that came out on top, beating the Guelph Storm 4-3 at Sudbury Community Gardens Sunday afternoon in a game the pitted the OHL’s two worst teams against each other.
Sudbury now sits four points ahead of the Storm in the standings.
First overall pick Daniel Levin and Ryan Valentini beat Michael Giugovaz in the shootout while Isaac Ratcliffe (pictured) was the only one of four Storm shooters to better Troy Timpano at the other end.
It was the final game of the three-game northern road trip, with an overtime loss in North Bay and loss in Sault Ste. Marie already on the books.
“We showed the guys video today of us getting pucks to the net and getting people to the net and that was the message,” Storm coach Jarrod Skalde said.
“We did a good job of that today, but we could have done a better job of it,” he said.
“We’ll take the point, but obviously we’re a little disappointed by how the trip ended.”
The Storm focused on getting pucks to the net on Sunday after not having much luck doing that on the road trip’s other two defeats. They managed to put 45 shots on Timpano, including a bucket-load of chances in close over the final period, but couldn’t beat him.
“That last period for sure we had about 10 chances where we should have scored,” said the Storm’s Luke Burghardt, who had several of them himself. “Their goalie played well, but we have to bear down and get those in at the end.”
Storm captain C.J. Garcia was willing to give a tip of the cap to the Wolves goaltender, but said the Storm has to own some of the inability to finish off those chances.
