Carroll still steers Storm
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury
Giving up the captaincy doesn’t seem to have had an adverse affect on Tyler Carroll’s game.
In fact the Guelph Storm veteran has been on fire since deciding to give up the ‘C’ last week.
His red-hot play continued Thursday night as he scored twice and added an assist in the Storm’s 4-3 win over the London Knights at the John Labatt Centre.
Carroll’s second goal with 1:33 left in regulation — a redirect of a hard Peter Holland pass — proved to be the winner as the Storm won for the second time in the past three games.
The 20-year-old Strathroy native has four goals and three assists in the four games since deciding to step down as captain.
“It’s great to spread the scoring around a little bit. It definitely takes some of the weight off the shoulders of the big three,” Carroll said.
Asked if giving up the captaincy perhaps lifted some of the weight off his shoulders given his recent scoring exploits, Carroll just shrugged.
“I have no explanation for that,” he said with a big smile.
Taylor Beck, who now shares the captain’s duties with Michael Latta, couldn’t be happier for his teammate.
“This is the best I’ve seen him play in four years. I’m extremely happy for him,” said Beck of Carroll, who now has 12 goals on the season. “He’s making it easy to play with him. He’s doing all the little things right.”
Carroll’s winner came on a seemingly innocent two-on-two rush with linemate Holland.
Carroll went to the net, Holland, who was carrying the puck, put the brakes on at the top of the faceoff circle and fired a low hard pass towards Carroll, who got a stick on it in front of London goaltender Michael Houser.
