Struggling Storm veterans get the monkeys off their backs
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Today
Matt Hotchkiss finally got the call for an interview after Friday night’s 6-2 win over the North Bay Battalion at the Sleeman Centre.
It’s been a while.
The fourth-year forward had just one goal and five points in his first 17 games this season but broke out with a solid game at both ends of the ice against North Bay, scoring once and adding two assists.
He was one of several veterans struggling of late who came up big Friday.
Isaac Ratcliffe had a pair of goals, Alexey Toropchenko had two assists and James McEwan also scored.
Nate Schnarr and Ryan Merkley, into the empty net, had the other Guelph goals.
“It was really good to get contributions out of everyone tonight,” said Hotchkiss. “We have a super deep team this year and we should be having four lines getting opportunities to score every night.
“You hope that you have balanced scoring in the lineup and it’s really nice to see some of the depth coming into play,” Hotchkiss said.
“You could just feel the bench was buzzing tonight.”
Guelph jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and never looked back.
The closest it got after that was when it was 4-2 late in the second period.
