Prigione helps Storm stop skid
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury – The Italian Stallion rides again.
Native son James Prigione kept his flawless Ontario Hockey League career intact Sunday, backstopping the Guelph Storm to a 2-1 overtime win over the Brampton Battalion at the Powerade Centre.
The win snapped Guelph’s four-game losing skid and leaves them seven points back of the Owen Sound Attack for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Guelph has two games in hand on the Attack.
Saturday in Erie, the Storm fell 7-5 to the Otters.
“He earned himself another start. He might get two,” Storm coach Jason Brooks said of Prigione, who won the lone game he played last year. “He’ll definitely play Friday (in Saginaw).”
Prigione was called up from the junior B Listowel Cyclones as an emergency replacement when Matt Hoyle quit the team at Christmas. He is supposed to go back to Listowel when Brandon Foote is healthy enough to play, likely in another week or two.
“He played great and he kept us in it at times. From his game last year to this year he looked like two different goalies. He has way more confidence,” Brooks said.
The 18-year-old Prigione, a man of few words, just shrugged his shoulders about the effort.
“No, I wasn’t too nervous. A little off the start, but that was about it,” he said.
